Canberra Academy of Languages

Budget estimates hearings are under way in the ACT Legislative Assembly. Education is on the agenda for Thursday 30 July and Tuesday 4 August 2026. If you are an ACT student of languages, or if you have previously studied languages with CAL or CIT Sol, and wish to provide input about the response you would like to see from the government in relation to the report on senior secondary languages, please let us know with a message from here, or with an email to [email protected].

The ACT Government has published an activity report about its Language Education Action Plan as of June 2026. A link to the report is on the LEAP home page at https://www.act.gov.au/open/language-education-action-plan.

Based on what is in the activity report, it appears there has been no progress in terms of responding to recommendations 7 and 8 from the inquiry by the Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Social Policy into central provision of senior secondary language courses.

If you are an ACT student of languages, or if you have previously studied languages with CAL or CIT Sol, and wish to provide input about the response you would like to see from the government in response to the report on senior secondary languages, please let us know with a message from here, or an email to [email protected].

Our audio from the CAL Convener's discussion with ABC reporter Emmy Groves is now available from the News page on CAL website at https://cal.au/news.htm .

A couple of short segments from the discussion were included in the ABC TV evening news on 6 July about the languages inquiry by the ACT Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Social Policy into central provision of Year 11-12 language courses.

Also on the CAL News page are links to other recent items in the media about the report.

News - Canberra Academy of Languages

Report this evening on ABC website https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-06/act-language-education-plan-not-fit-for-purpose-report/106885526

Report this morning in The Canberra Times https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9304542/language-gaps-in-act-public-schools-create-frustrating-system

The report from the ACT Legislative Assembly's Standing Committee on Social Policy’s Inquiry into E-Petition 077-25: Access to 11–12 ATAR language courses was published today. See https://cal.au/news.htm for more about this.

We fully support the committee’s findings and recommendations. We would like to thank the committee members for the careful consideration that they have given to this important matter.

The report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education inquiry into Building Asia Capability in Australia has been published on the website of the Australian Parliament. There was also a discussion this morning on the ABC Canberra Breakfast program about languages education. See the CAL News page at https://cal.au/news.htm for more about this.

The decline in Asian language learning in Australian schools is highlighted in the majority report. As noted in the Coalition comments appended to the report, the decline is also evident in learning of other languages, including European languages, and Australia's national interests are not confined to a single region. The report also mentions Aboriginal languages, but does not provide any figures on participation for these.

News - Canberra Academy of Languages

ANGLS 2026, the annual conference of the Australian Network of Government Language Schools, is in session Monday-Tuesday 22-23 June 2026. See CAL website at either https://cal.act.edu.au or https://cal.au soon for more about this.

cal.au

Some assertions made in the ACT Legislative Assembly senior secondary languages inquiry hearing sessions require responses. See https://cal.act.edu.au/news.htm for more about these.

News - Canberra Academy of Languages News from the Canberra Academy of Languages - this year and previous years.