Pharos Alliance pushes for language equity in schools and media

Pharos Alliance, a group dedicated to supporting the Greek language, has submitted its response to the Victorian Government’s call for a multicultural review. Pharos wants to increase the teaching of Greek and has provided a range of views encompassing support for language education and support for ethnic media.

The Victorian government has recently undertaken a series of consultations seeking feedback on a review of how the state can best serve multiculturalism and on the role and functions of the Victorian Multicultural Commission.

Pharos submitted to the government’s review, noting down several suggestions and recommendations.

Pharos wants to increase support for the Community Broadcasting Foundation (CBF), to deliver funding to specific language programs in ethnic media and point to the 3ZZZ community ethnic radio station in Victoria; however, Pharos does not mention independent multicultural media, or SBS, which have significant reach into ethnic communities.

Vasso Zangalis from Pharos said that she cited 3ZZZ Radio as “just one example.”

Neos Kosmos, for example, produces in Greek and in English, and like the Italian masthead, Il Globo, preceded the establishment of the CBF and SBS by close to three decades.

“I didn’t want to pinpoint one organisation out, it was just one example, and I did want to include independent multicultural media,” Zangalis told Neos Kosmos.

Pharos has called for fairer VCE language scaling, noting that current differences between languages disadvantage subjects like Greek. Pharos point to the fact that many students drop Greek by Year 10, believing it hurts their VCE scores and in response they proposed a uniform scaling boost for all VCE languages and recommended three exam tiers for Greek: one for native speakers, one for recent arrivals, and one for learners from Year 7, ensuring fairer assessment across the Greek Australian community. Neos Kosmos asked if Pharos believes that third generation Australians drop Greek after year 10, if it’s because they can’t leverage off it in VCE, what evidence they may have for that belief.

“I think Pharos has had stories of teachers of Greek, and evidence from students who say that because it’s waited less, they’re less likely to pick up Greek at VCE,” said Zangalis.

Many native speakers of Greek who came after the 2008 Financial Crisis do so well in Greek that it intimidates Greek Australian students born here.

Zangalis acknowledged that and said, “There is a two-tier system at the moment”.

“I know there’s some feedback that it’s the same test or both native speakers and those born here, and they say the test is just marked differently.

“That’s my understanding of how it works, you know what? Anything is better than nothing, though”, said Zangalis.

Neos Kosmos pointed to how Italian has succeeded more than Greek in being embedded in state and Catholic schools.

Zangalis said that “The Italian community made a deliberate decision not to establish a widespread network of after-hours language schools”.

“It was a conscious choice, and today, the only remaining place offering Italian outside state and Catholic schools is COASIT in Carlton.

“Part of the reason Italian has remained strong in some areas is due to its adoption by Catholic schools, thanks to the shared cultural and religious ties,” said Zangalis. She added that Catholicism played a role in embedding the language within the education system.

She also points to what she says is “another side to this story”.

“In some cases, [Greek] individuals have set up independent language schools and aggressively recruited students from nearby public schools.

“They encouraged families to abandon the state system’s offerings in favour of their private programs,” said Zangalis.

She believes that this dynamic has created tension, with concerns about competition rather than collaboration within language education. Moreover, she has expressed concern with the Department of Education’s focus on teaching only an hour of language which is insufficient in gaining a real understanding of language, according to Zangalis.

She also wants to “acknowledge overseas qualifications”.

“We should be acknowledging native speakers and fast-tracking them to become teachers,” Zangalis said.

“You shouldn’t have to have a teaching degree to become a language teacher; if you’ve got the language, you should be allowed to become a teacher while teaching language.”

The Pharos representative has also called for scholarships for language teachers, but “not teachers that are already in the system, as that funding is already there.”

A snapshot of the Pharos submission: