From Language matters
The idea of a "mysterious" east has been around for centuries, and even today there is nothing more mysterious for the average westerner than an Arabic newspaper with its squiggly back-to-front writing. "As far as I can tell," William Rugh, former US ambassador in the Middle East told a conference a couple of years ago, "there are no prominent American politicians, state governors, members of congress, members of the government, or members of the national press corps among those reading Arabic newspapers. In the entire US government ... only a handful of people can read Arabic and they are so busy these days that they generally do not have time to read Arab newspapers." This is not particularly surprising but if we look at the situation the other way round there's a very different picture. Large and increasing numbers of Arab politicians, government officials and journalists are fluent in English. Many of them - thanks to the internet - are now avid readers of the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian and other western newspapers. ...

And from To strengthen ties with China, speak the language first
... Congress and the public must not let terrorism abroad and political controversy at home blind them from the long-term implications of this legislation. More than 30 years after opening diplomatic contacts with the People's Republic, we are still woefully unprepared to work with a China whose rise increasingly laps onto our shores. Our government leaders have been too slow to acknowledge that mutual understanding grows out of classrooms, not just trade volume, and their complacency has kept the most significant bilateral relationship of this century in a retarded state. ...

Increasing alienation and insularity will retard Australia's ability to integrate with the rest of the world, too. The solution has one anchor in our schools. My education, at a government secondary school, was sadly neglectful because I did not learn about Homer. As it is, that doesn't matter, and there's a good case for more learning about modern languages, including Arabic and Chinese. A mass of young people could become familiar with another language through the use of electronic tools. That means investing in the technology, but who would want to do that? Put it another way - who would gain from a generation of workers who are at least knowledgable about foreign communications systems, and many of them keen to have hands-on experience? Not the world of diplomacy, but trade relations. That is, the business world. The smart coves in international business must be itching to invest their capital in joint ventures with public agencies, in order to keep their capital in the hands of native English speakers.

Evan Hadkins, I believe that it's not the education our children receive, but the marks that our children are allocated, that are used to determine and obtain employment opportunities. Our children are judged on their marks.

There are also a few serious problems with this.

Firstly, it is the environment and the quality of the education that the child receives in relation to a topic or outcome that determines and/or influences the mark and different schools have different issues and produce vastly different results.

The Education Department wants parents to believe that it’s the child's intelligence that determines the mark. Whilst it does to a degree, no matter how intelligent a child is, they are not telepathic, and if they are in a disadvantaged environment and haven’t been properly taught, or they are not aware of the scope of the test, they are not going to know the answers.

It doesn’t mean that you are not smart if you don’t know the answers, yet marks are used to reflect a student’s intelligence and to provide opportunities. The environment a child is in and the quality of teaching that the child is exposed to is the thing that makes the most difference, yet the student is the one that is discredited and disadvantaged when the marks are not as high as they need to be!

It is also a fact that marks are calculated and designated behind closed doors, in secrecy and that many teachers and schools can and do moderate marks up and down in order to present the picture that they want to present in relation to the teachers, school and in relation to individual students and/or students as a group – tests are often not returned to the students and that leaves an opening and opportunity for covering up serious bias, manipulation of test scores, discrimination, segregation and corruption.

Until we take the focus of our children’s marks and start focusing on identifying and encouraging our children’s strengths so that they know what they are good at and start directing them towards jobs that enhances their talents and skill, we will continue to produce many students who think that they are smarter than they really are and others who believe that they are not good at anything and have no idea that they really are quite smart and they have just been failed by the system.

I don’t know how to get support for Education issues. I have told the Department of Education that if they don’t fairly and properly address the issues and allegations that I have brought before them that, when we run out of the $20,000.00 that we have borrowed to pay for Solicitors fees trying to get a Solicitor to help, then I will go on a hunger strike outside the Department of Education with all the Documents and if they won't do the right thing then I will do whatever I have to in order to protect my children and show the Public what is really going on.

The Department is not concerned because they believe everybody will be too scared to get involved and that nobody will care!

I don’t know what else to do!

I have tried writing to all the Politicians, tried talking to schools, counselors, other parents – everybody that I have brought it up with doesn’t want to get involved despite the fact that the evidence that we have to back up our complaints and allegations is excessive and alarming.

Parents fear that if they speak up in relation to education then, like my children, their children will be targeted and they will suffer. They know - everybody knows - that those that speak up are targeted, victimized, discredited and ostracized.

I would like to have the opportunity to show the Public what has been done and is being done to my children – during the Christmas break my teenage children protested outside the Department of Education in Sydney – our local newspaper did an article.

When one of the major newspapers responded to a media notice that I sent and came to the protest, they left wishing us luck in having the matter addressed and they indicated that they were not interested and were not prepared to get involved. They are not the first media to turn their back on these innocent children on the basis that it wasn’t something their paper was interested in.

My children just want their complaints and allegations properly and fairly investigated so that the truth can be told and so that they can get on with their life without continuously suffering the consequences of having been outspoken.

Until people who have some power or influence get involved in helping our children who are being targeted and treated unfairly, nothing will change.