Immigrant Children and Education
Media Release - DPS 13/96
The first major study in a decade to examine the relationship between schooling and immigration across Australia was released today by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.
Immigration and Schooling in the 1990's, a study conducted nationally by a research team from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), was written by Desmond Cahill, Professor of Intercultural Studies at RMIT, a leading expert in immigrant education.
The study examined a wide range of issues relating to schooling in Australia's culturally diverse society, including English language programs, language maintenance, parental aspirations, ethnic and religious schools, ethnic tensions and sport.
It includes case studies of 20 Government, Catholic and Independent schools in four States. The researchers also received submissions from government and private schools systems and conducted consultations in all State and Territories in 1993, 1994, and 1995.
Generally, the team fond that Australian schools were coping well with educating children from immigrant families, though some problems existed that deserved national attention.
Among the findings:
- the overwhelming majority of teachers believed that the schooling system had responded well to the needs of children from countries where English is not the first language. However, students and the community still did not value bilingualism;
- the provision of English language training should be better supported at Federal and State level;
- generally, racial incidents were not a very serious problem in Australian schools, but incidents were more common in secondary than in primary schools. They were usually associated with gang involvement or individual intervention from outside school;
- all schools and their leaders were strongly committed to the creation of school environment s which were free of racism and ethnic and religious hostility;
- many migrant children had achieved eminence in national and international sport, though were more likely to restrict their physical activities to school.
22 November 1996
Media contact, and for copies of the study:
Professor Des Cahill (03) 9353 9348 or 9353 9363 (work), (03) 9376 9642 (home)