We, the undersigned community members, are extremely concerned about the inequality that currently exists with the Western Australian Curriculum Council's application process for eligibility to study a second language. If a student wishes to apply to study an Asian language as a second language, they are subject to quite different criteria compared to students applying to study a modern European language as a second language.
If a student wishes to study an Asian language as a second language and is deemed to have some background knowledge in that language, they are deemed ineligible and are given the option to study and advanced course in that language. The level of difficulty of the advanced courses is such that a majority of these students are incapable of passing the advanced course and thus tend to cease their studies in Asian languages.
However, students wishing to study a modern European language are screened in order to identify background speakers but these students are still eligible to study the European language, however, their results are removed for the statistical moderation and scaling process and they are ineligible to receive any of the Curriculum Council awards. Besides this, there is no disadvantage to the marks of these students.
We look forward to your immediate response and we wish to see an equitable approach applied to students wishing to study ALL languages by the Western Australian Curriculum Council and a stop to the current discriminatory process.