A budget briefing was conducted by the Minister for Housing and Multicultural Affairs Colin Brooks recently where he highlighted the state's allocation for multicultural communities.
Millions of dollars have been allocated in the 2023 state budget for the promotion of multiculturalism including establishing three new beacon schools offering Hindi and Punjabi language subjects.
A spokesperson for the Victorian government told SBS Hindi that it made sense to allocate funds for teaching Hindi and Punjabi in Victorian schools as the state had the biggest Indian population in Australia.
That's why we're proud to be investing $3.5 million to create three beacon schools to teach Hindi and Punjabi at VCE level, and $150,000 to deliver scholarships to support Victorians who want to train and teach Hindi and Punjabi in our schools.Victorian government spokesperson
The schools teaching the two languages will be spread across the state with one in the west, one in the north and one in the south east.
According to the 2021 census, there are over 197,000 Hindi speaking people in the country, an increase from 2016 which recorded 159,652 Hindi speakers.
The Minister for Housing and Multicultural Affairs, Colin Brooks, speaking to multicultural media about the Victorian government's allocations to multicultural communities.
"Victoria has the highest Indian population in Australia – according to census data, there are more than 170,000 Victorians who speak Hindi and Punjabi in our state," the Premier said during an election campaign last year.
Currently, Victoria offers 48 different language at VCE level with Punjabi introduced to the VCE level in 2005.
Besides this, there are currently four early childhood services delivering Punjabi as part of the Early Childhood Language Program.
Minister for Housing and Multicultural Affairs Colin Brooks (L) along with Victoria's Assistant Treasurer Danny Pearson (R).
However, Melbourne-based Manjeet Theti, who has been teaching Hindi for over three decades, says the Hindi language is still in its infancy in the country.
Manjeet Tethi is a Hindi teacher in Melbourne. Credit: Manjeet Thethi
She believes that even though the language learning programs in Australia were the best in the world, there is a need to examine how investments are being used and whether they are providing the right support for students who want to learn Hindi.
According to Samarth Ram Raghvendra, the 2020 VCE Hindi topper, learning the language was a way to remain connected with India.
Samarth Ram Raghvendra
Other key highlights of the 2023 State Budget for multicultural communities include:
- $40 million to continue the Multicultural Infrastructure Fund to upgrade, renovate and build multicultural and multi-faith community facilities.
- $17 million to upgrade and revitalise business and cultural hubs in Victoria’s multicultural precincts, provide grants to multicultural trader associations and for scholarships to help train staff to fill jobs in these precincts.
- $12 million to help our multicultural and multi-faith communities celebrate the festivals and events that offer important connections.
- $9.8 million for multicultural support programs including the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, to help the voices of our multicultural and multi-faith communities be heard.
- $6 million to fund anti‑vilification campaigns to counter discrimination and prejudice.
- $6 million to strengthen and extend language provision in Community Language Schools and select government schools, including by establishing three new beacon schools offering Hindi and Punjabi language subjects.
