Asian studies programs potentially worth billions of dollars are being proposed by commentators, academics and politicians even though any extra spending to improve Australia's Asia literacy is wasteful and unnecessary, according to a new report.
With mounting concerns about balancing the budget, any new spending initiatives need to be based on evidence, and this report finds Australia is already well-positioned to prosper in the Asian Century thanks to our multicultural society's readymade Asia literacy.
'A defining feature of the Asia literacy debate has been the evidence vacuum. Politicians pledging to improve Asia literacy have failed to back up rhetoric with facts. Now the facts are clear: together with Asia's English literacy, Australia's Asia literacy means we already have the language skills needed for success in the Asian Century,' says Policy Analyst Benjamin Herscovitch.
The report, released today by The Centre for Independent Studies, finds there is no need to spend more money on Asia literacy and learning Asian languages should not be made compulsory.
'Asian languages are currently offered at some levels of schooling across all Australian jurisdictions, yet the numbers of students studying them remain low,' says Herscovitch.
With an estimated 2 billion people worldwide speaking English, and one-third of the global population studying English, there is growing English literacy in Asia and the rest of the world.
'English is the world's lingua franca, and the language of globalisation. Added to this, Asia has approximately 800 million English speakers, meaning it has far more English speakers than the entire Anglosphere,' says Herscovitch.
'With 330 million English speakers in both China and India, the global power shift to Asia does not mean a shift away from English.' 'Australia is also well-equipped with Asian languages skills. Australia is home to some 2.2 million speakers of Asian languages - 10% of the population - including more than 650,000 speakers of Chinese languages.'
'Many Australians who speak Asian languages will also have familial connections to Asian cultures, which points to a large stock of Asian cultural literacy in Australia.'
'Given that 7 of the top 10 source countries in Australia's 2011-12 immigration program were from Asia, this pool of Asian languages speakers is set to grow in coming years.'
Before committing potentially billions of dollars in taxpayer funds, politicians must explain why more students need to study Asian languages when the evidence shows that our multicultural society has widespread readymade Asia literacy.
Benjamin Herscovitch is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies. He is available for comment.
The report, Australia's Asia Literacy Non-Problem, is available from the CIS website.
Watch a video of the key findings of the report on YouTube.
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