Hebrew schools to benefit from Victorian election

STUDENTS at the United Jewish Education Board, Lamdeni and Chabad are all set to benefit from a race between the two major parties to see which can provide more language funding.

Labor’s Jennifer Huppert, who is up for re-election as the member for Southern Metropolitan Region, said her party’s four-year program would provide $200 subsidies for students studying Hebrew, or other languages, after-school or on Sundays. The total cost of the ALP’s policy is $8.8 million.

This compares to the Coalition’s promise of a $190 subsidy for language students, just one branch of the Liberal’s $32.7 million language policy.

“Learning a language helps people to stay connected to their culture and heritage or to learn more about another culture,” Huppert said this week. “Labor will support families so they can continue to speak their own language and stay connected to their traditions.”

Huppert — a Jewish lawyer who, since being parachuted into the seat left by Evan Thornley when he retired, has been a strong presence in the Jewish community — emphasised her party’s commitment to multiculturalism.

However, the Coalition’s language policy goes further, providing $6 million of scholarships for teachers to train in languages other than English, as well as an undated promise to introduce compulsory studies in a second language in all Victorian primary schools.

“Languages are the key to the global village for Victorian students and an internationally competitive economy,” Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said.

And making a comment that many Jewish schools could relate to, he lamented the lack of language teachers in a statement earlier this month.

“There are too few language teachers in Victoria to provide for even the modest demand for languages education in Victorian schools,” he said. “Community language schools also do a great job, but need more help to give students more opportunity to expand their language skills.”

AJN STAFF