Data released last month by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) shows that 348 students from 50 Victorian schools sat the VCE (Unit 4) Year 12 examination in Indonesian in 2023–down (10%) from 387 students from 51 schools in 2022.
By way of comparison, in 2002, 1,061 students from 103 schools in Victoria sat the Year 12 examination in Indonesian.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Victorian schools were producing 700-900 Year 12 graduates with advanced Indonesian language skills, the state could comfortably support undergraduate Indonesian programs at four Victorian universities–at The University of Melbourne, Monash University, La Trobe University, and Deakin University–with healthy commencing first-year cohorts of 50-90 students at each institution.
The Victorian school system has long been a powerhouse–a national standout–in turning out Year 12 students with high-level Indonesian languages skills. Victoria accounted for 387 or 63% of the 619 Year 12 tertiary-recognised language enrolments recorded nationally in 2022 (https://lnkd.in/gCUPuWAv).
However, even in Victoria the study of Indonesian at senior secondary level is now declining precipitously. The study of Indonesian at Year 12 level in Victorian schools is now below the level that prevailed prior to 1995 and NALSAS (https://lnkd.in/g5626Try), the Australian Government’s last meaningful policy intervention aimed at increasing the study of Asian languages in Australian schools.
Next year, 2025, will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of NALSAS—and the 23rd year since its demise in 2002 (https://lnkd.in/dVAeyCan).
As recently as September last year (2023), the Australian Government’s newly formulated ‘Invested: Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040’ had as its first recommendation (p.27) that “National Cabinet should consider developing a whole-of-nation plan to strengthen Southeast Asia literacy in Australian business, government, the education and training system, and the community.” (See: https://lnkd.in/gmG8QrNx).
Indonesia and its 278 million people constitute 40% of Southeast Asia.
It would cost the Australian Government approximately $70 million per year to restore funding for Asian languages education in Australian schools back to the level prevailing between 1995 and 2002 under NALSAS (https://lnkd.in/gj46diyQ).
To the 348 Victorian students who sat the Year 12 VCE examination in Indonesian in 2023–and to the dedicated teachers who got them across the line–I offer my congratulations and gratitude. Welcome to a very special club. I hope to see you on an ACICIS program in Indonesia soon.
