LABOR ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR COMMUNITY LANGUAGE SCHOOLS IN HEFFRON WITH $2.5 MILLION FUNDING BOOST

NSW Labor has announced the largest ever funding boost to Community Language Schools across NSW which will provide the more than 30,000 students, as well as teachers and volunteers who attend and operate the schools more support and resources.

Under a Labor Government, funding for these schools will be boosted by more than $75 per student to $200 per student – leaving NSW Community Language Schools with the largest funding package of any state in Australia.

Community Language Schools offer classes in 56 different community languages and are open to any school-aged student from a government, Catholic or independent school. The classes are held outside normal school hours and help students learn and use their community language or learn a new language.

Labor’s funding commitment represented a 62 per cent increase in funding and would bring the total investment to $6.5 million a year.

Labor is committed to ensuring that students from different cultural backgrounds have the chance to develop skills in another language.

Labor’s $2.5 million funding boost will help Community Language Schools attract and retain teachers with specialist language skills to continue educating the thousands of students who attend these schools.

Thousands of young people around the state attend a community language school outside of regular school hours each week, because students and their families know the importance of being multilingual.

These schools not only to help young people connect with their cultural background and communicate with older relatives, but also help students who are preparing for the HSC or learning a language for the first time.

The community in Heffron benefit from NUMBER of schools where students are learning Greek, Turkish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Czech and Slovak - and I am proud to confirm that a Labor Government will increase support to these schools that our communities in Heffron rely on.

Labor’s $2.5 million funding commitment will mean that these and the other Community Language Schools across the state will be the best funded in Australia.

I am proud that under Labor, our community language schools will be the best-funded in the country, to reflect the importance of our multicultural communities.