Australia is a large island, smack-bang in the middle of the Asia-Pacific.

For thousands of years, that geographic position has inspired both Indigenous and migrated Australians to connect and trade with a diverse range of international partners – particularly those in closest proximity to our borders. These economic, social and cultural ties still continue today.

Multiculturalism has long been prioritised by the Australian government and our place in the Asia-Pacific region makes it easy for us to embrace the cultural diversity all around us.

In fact, more than 400 different languages are represented in Australian homes today. The most common language (other than English) is Mandarin, closely followed by Arabic, Vietnamese, and Cantonese.

Since 2012, the Australian Government have been adamant in outlining their vision for deepening its engagement with the Asian region across all aspects of Australian society, as well as encouraging Australians to strengthen their Asia capabilities. For Australian schools and universities, the benefits are also financial.

What is Asia-capability?

Asia-capability refers to an individual’s ability to interact effectively in Asian countries, cultures and, with people from Asian cultural backgrounds, including areas surrounding North-east Asia (China, Japan, etc.), South-east Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, etc.) and South Asia (India, Pakistan, etc.)

Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tom Watts, spoke on the topic at the recent Asialink Leaders’ Summit, asking his counterparts “to what extent is Australia ready and able to engage with Asia and all it demands from us, in the 21st century?”

Despite inspirational speeches and initiatives from the government to strengthen ‘whole-of-nation’ Asia-capability, all too often, these initiatives are focused on economic priorities, university students, or those in the existing workforce. 

As the world becomes even more interconnected, many experts believe that the priority should lie within our young people; however, the Australian curriculum is yet to echo the cry of the government.

The reasons around why it is important for our students to develop an understanding of the economic dynamics, as well as the cultural and linguistic skills needed to engage with people and organisations from these vast regions from a much younger age are multifaceted.

Not only will this help create cohesive, inclusive, and diverse schools, it will teach them earlier to have the capabilities to support cohesive communities, societies, nation and a shared, prosperous Asia-Pacific.

Asia capabilities in the curriculum

Although the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA) recognises our country’s diversity, the Cross-Curriculum Priority of Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia and the General Capability of Intercultural Understanding that all teachers are expected to support, regardless of subject areas taught, are often perceived as the responsibility of discipline areas like languages.

Given the nation-wide teacher shortages, many teachers don’t have the resources or time to embed Asia-capability aspects into their classrooms, or feel they don’t have a strong Asia-capability themselves.

Investing in better teacher education

Investing more knowledge into our teachers and making more resources available to the entire Australian school education workforce is crucial to achieving the intention of the Australian Curriculum and the Australian government’s priority of whole-of-nation Asia capability.

For Western Australians, Punjabi language will soon be added to the curriculum for public schools. Education minister Sue Ellery said earlier this year that Punjabi has become the fastest-growing language in the country, and that “the development of Punjabi curriculum is particularly fitting given it could support students in key future employment opportunities”.

In 2022, there were only two available South Asian or Indian programs in Australia: one in Australian National University one at the University of Sydney. A stark comparison to The University of Tokyo, which teaches six Indian languages alone.

Recognising the historical and contemporary significance of South Asia in cultivating a global understanding of political, economic, social and cultural change, The University of Melbourne have developed a new Minor in South Asian Studies, hosted by the Asia Institute. This new Minor allows students to develop a specialist knowledge of South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan.

What can teachers do?

As other states develop their own strategies for Asia-capability, primary and high school teachers can find valuable resources from Asia Education Australia (AEA); including an extensive catalogue of curriculum-aligned learning sequences, recommended links, subject associations, illustrations of practice, sample maps, professional learning modules and multimedia for all year levels and subject/learning areas.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot more resources available for now.

But, as Professor Craig Jeffrey of the University of Melbourne says, “South Asia is the future.” 

And that means that it is in the interests of the Australian education sector to catch up – and fast.