Building an Asia-literate Australia will not be cheap.
But as long as Australian governments try to promote language study on the cheap, our monolingualism will endure, and we will fall further behind the many dynamic, multilingual countries.
Australia has not skimped on investing in vital infrastructure in the past. Asia literacy is our most pressing human infrastructure priority: it demands serious and sustained investment and will offer far greater rewards.
We estimate that the Australian Strategy for Asian Languages Proficiency outlined in this report will cost $11.3 billion over the course of 30 years17.
Each of the three Phases in the Strategy requires investment in building capacity and institutions, as well as ongoing operational costs.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Establishing the National Institute for Asian Languages | $71 million |
| Tendering process for Phase One | $0.5 million |
| Funding to participating schools | $25 million |
| Salaries for language teachers and teacher aides | $769.6 million |
| Training for tertiary language teaching and research | $165 million |
| In-country scholarships | $10.8 million |
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Operating the National Institute for Asian languages | $95 million |
| Review of Phase One | $1 million |
| Tendering process for Phase Two | $5 million |
| Teacher and teacher aid salaries | $924 million |
| Salaries for additional teachers and teacher aides | $1,700 million |
| Funding to participating schools | $100 million |
| Funding for tertiary language teaching and research | $305 million |
| In-country scholarships | $20 million |
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Operating the National Institute for Asian languages | $140 million |
| Review of Phase Two | $1 million |
| Tendering process for Phase Three |
$7 million |
| Teacher and teacher aide salaries | $2,500 million |
| Salaries for additional teachers and teacher aides | $3,700 million |
| Funding for participating schools | $300 million |
| Funding for tertiary language teaching and research | $457.5 million |
| In-country scholarships | $30 million |