Language a hot topic for youngsters
TENS of thousands of Australian preschoolers will try their hand at languages this year as the Turnbull government rolls out early learning languages program across the country.
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More than 30,000 children would learn Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese or Spanish as part of the Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA) program in 2017.
It is the first time the program had been open across the country and the response so far had been “incredible” but preschools and child care centres were running out of time to sign up to take part.
Learning a foreign language doesn’t just give children the gift of the gab, it can boost other vital skills like problem solving and their literacy in English that ultimately carry through to their performance at school.
ELLA is a play-based way for children to learn another language and open their mind and following the program’s successful trials last year we’ve committed an additional $5.9 million to roll it out to any eligible preschool or child care centre that wants to take part.
Through our initial $9.8 million commitment to develop and trial the program in 2014 and 2015, we’ve seen how the ELLA languages program can have positive impact on our children and so parents and families should get in touch with their preschool or child care service and ask them to sign up.
We have a range of tools in place to help services roll out the ELLA program, but they need to register by February 26.
The ELLA program has been a big hit with parents, educators and of course the children themselves and thanks to our additional funding of $5.9 million this will be the first year that anyone can take part.
Simon Birmingham
Federal Minister for Education and Training
Opportunity awaits
APPLICATIONS for the Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia’s (RGA) tertiary scholarships are now open.
The RGA was formed in the face of adversity in 1930 to unite the small group of pioneer rice growers into an effective and cohesive force. Today, the RGA is the collective voice of rice growers in Australia, representing around 1500 voluntary members.
The organisation represents growers on issues affecting the viability of their business and communities and works to ensure a profitable long term future for individual rice growers and their industry.
As part of this commitment to the industry’s long term future, every year for the past twelve years, the RGA has awarded two scholarships to the children or grandchildren of RGA members to assist with their tertiary education costs.
The scholarships are named after two past leaders of the rice industry, Greg Graham and Peter Connor. Greg Graham was president of the RGA when he died suddenly on New Year’s Day in 1983.
He was actively involved in the irrigation and rice industry, as well as his local community of Deniliquin. The Greg Graham Memorial Scholarship provides $10,000 to assist a student with the costs of tertiary education. The Peter Connor Book Award is awarded to the runner-up of the Greg Graham Memorial Scholarship winner and consists of $3000 to put towards the cost of books and course materials.
Peter Connor was a leading rice grower in the Coleambally area, and was vice president of the RGA as well as a board member of the Ricegrowers’ Co-operative Limited. I would encourage university students who are studying agriculture-related courses to apply for the scholarship.
Application forms are available at www.rga.org.au/education/awards-and-scholarships.aspx or by phoning the RGA on 6953 0433. Applications close February 3.
Jeremy Morton
President
RGA