Mohammad Hassaan Mirza
Auckland, December 18, 2020
The New Zealand Government has opened submissions for the Education (Strengthening Second Language Learning in Primary and Intermediate Schools) Amendment Bill.
Proposed in the first instance (2018) by Nikki Kaye, the then National MP from Auckland Central, the Bill was re-introduced by National Party List MP Paul Goldsmith.
The Bill propose to introduce ten priority languages into the teaching curriculum of the Primary and Intermediate schools, from Years 1 to 8.
These languages are to be determined by consulting with communities across the nation.
The Bill aims to do so as part of a National Language Policy, which will allow the government to fund professional development, language specialists and online resources to represent New Zealand’s diverse cultural identity better.
The Bill has been positively received by community leaders as well as those who have raised their voice in support of strengthening the presence of their community’s identities in the fabric of New Zealand as a country.
Promoting Our Languages
We at Sangam, recommend that attention be given to include the languages of the countries of South Asian subcontinent among these ten priority languages.
These would include Urdu from Pakistan, Hindi from India, Nepalese from Nepal, Sinhalese from Sri Lanka, Afghani from Afghanistan and Bengali from Bangladesh.
As per the 2018 Census, about 206,000 people (4.5%) of the population in New Zealand speak these languages. A significant portion of the population, as such, would benefit from the option of studying their own language in Primary and Intermediate Schools.
The bountiful quantity of representatives from the South Asian Subcontinent would benefit from the presence of their national languages as options for their children’s schooling, not only to ensure that they will receive their cultural inheritance, but also to normalise the presence of their languages among the New Zealand populace as a whole.
Others will also get an opportunity to learn these languages, experiencing them in greater frequency during their everyday life. Through osmosis, they can become as accustomed to hearing languages like Urdu or Hindi as they would French, Spanish or any other common language as elective.
The average New Zealander may even become interested in learning them, this Bill enriching them with ample resources to do so.
Learning opportunity for all
The languages of South Asia, like Urdu and Hindi, should be made available to the population of New Zealand just as much as any other language.
We support the initiative to introduce ten national languages at the Primary and Intermediate levels, and we at Sangam would also wish to encourage the New Zealand government to push for these ten primary languages to be included at the Secondary and Tertiary levels.
An example of this is Japan, where Urdu and Hindi are taught at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The Department of Urdu has been a part of the University since the early 1900s.
Professor Mohammad Rais Alvi, Sangam’s Founding Patron, taught Urdu to Japanese students as a Guest Professor for several years, and many students completed their Master’s degree under his supervision
We wish to promote understanding and unity among the people from the South Asian Subcontinent, tying in perfectly to what this Bill aims to do.
We encourage the New Zealand government include South Asian communities in their consultation of the National Language Policy.
Please follow this link and make a submission:
Mohammad Hassaan Mirza is Assistant Editor (English Section) of Sangam Magazine. He lives in Auckland. The above article has been sponsored by
