More than $700,000 in funding has been provided to 47 community language schools through the WA Government’s community language schools program.
Community language schools are not-for-profit, community-based associations that operate out of school hours and teach languages other than English to students from kindergarten through to Year 12.
The schools have been awarded grants of $120 per student, and an additional $120 was awarded for each student enrolled in Western Australian Certificate of Education language courses.
Per capita funding is awarded annually to eligible schools that have been operating for more than 12 months.
The community language schools supported by the program are located throughout the Perth metropolitan area and teach a total of 33 languages.
In 2019, the top five community languages funded are Chinese with $235,320 in funding, Vietnamese $69,000, Arabic $57,040, Tamil $53,760 and Japanese $49,680. African community languages also received a total of $41,640.
The Community Languages Program and its funding is administered by the Office of Multicultural Interests, which provides support to not-for-profit community language schools to teach languages and cultural maintenance programs in after-school hours.
Source: WA Government