New solution for the survival of Modern Greek

A Greek language centre is offering the Federal Government a new solution to the problems and future challenges that surround the teaching of Modern Greek in Australia; that is to pool many services together and create a comprehensive online teaching program.

Last Tuesday, the Federal Minister of Tertiary Education Chris Evans met with the LOGOS Australian Centre for Hellenic Language and Culture Centre - based at Flinders University - to discuss plans they had to enhance the survival of community languages in Australia.
The program will be able to educate all students wanting to learn Greek in Australia. This could be more beneficial in particular for programs that are struggling to survive. Online teaching could also provide an excellent opportunity for students outside the big metropolitan areas to study Modern Greek.

At the meeting - which was also attended by Steve Georganas MP; Professor Richard Maltby, Executive Dean, Education, Humanities and Law; Associate Professor Diana Glenn, Dean of Humanities; and Cecily Wright, Education Designer, Department of Languages, Modern Greek - they discussed LOGOS' involvement in the development and research of this online program, which has the potential to revolutionise the way languages are taught at a tertiary level.
Modern Greek and other similar languages are existing under stress in Australia and logistically it is very hard for any Government to finance all "small" programs. As it stands, there are more than 200 community languages being taught in Australia, and if this program gets legs, it could act as a prototype for many others. There are already few similar programs in Australia, doing an excellent job, but none for Modern Greek.

"We are talking about a real, interactive, synchronous/asynchronous online program, not just material on a web site. In order to develop a similar program a team of staff and experts should work together for at least four years," Professor Michael Tsianikas, director of LOGOS, told Neos Kosmos.

"We were very fortunate when the Government of SA decided last year to support LOGOS with a grant of $600,000 for scholarships and to develop a dynamic online program" he said.
For 2012 LOGOS will create an online program for first and second year beginners and cultural topics in English. Already many students from Adelaide, Darwin and other areas of Australia are using the new program. The program will be finalised in 2015.
Professor Tsianikas said urgent action needed to occur in order to secure the future of Modern Greek in Australia.

He believes that the Greek community's solution to teaching Modern Greek at a tertiary level by raising money and funding a program for a year or two, is not sustainable, as when the money runs dry, the program fails. He also said that regarding Modern Greek in Australia, over the last 40 years, this history is repeating itself again and again.

"We are investing very badly and spasmodically in the sector of education," he says.
"There is time now to sit down and discuss real investment for the future and I believe there is one."
The solution to Professor Tsianikas is clear and that is to develop centres in Australia that will support these online programs so all students in Australia wanting to learn Modern Greek at a tertiary level are able to. He believes the government will support these programs as the centres - such as LOGOS - are offering solutions and not just pressuring the government to make decisions or putting last minute unproductive expectations on various schools or tertiary institutions. Governments will only act decisively if there is a strategically endorsed program from the Greek Community and it is more urgent than ever for such an undertaking.

Greek communities should source outstanding leadership in this area now.
The meeting with the Minister and LOGOS went for 45 minutes where they discussed the creation of LOGOS and the programs it offers, but mainly centred on the new online teaching program they have been developing.
Professor Tsianikas said that discussing this online program with the minister gave him "food for thought".
"The majority of many Modern Greek institutions, tragically, have collapsed; in the early 90s there were more than 40 lectures teaching Modern Greek at various departments around Australia.

Today there is less than 10; two centres in Melbourne collapsed, there are just a few programs left and some are struggling with staffing issues and other issues," he says, "but there is still time to do something about it."