Soon more than 5,000 Victorian children will start learning a new language while at kinder so they can get even more out of their early learning.
As part of the new Early Childhood Language Program, 150 Victorian kindergartens will offer weekly sessions in one of 15 languages. A further 10 kindergartens have been selected to run a bilingual program, where up to half of the kinder program would be offered in another language.
Kindergartens across Victoria will run weekly sessions in a range of languages including Arabic, French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Punjabi and Spanish.
Minister for Early Childhood Education Jenny Mikakos said this Australian-first initiative is going to put Victorian kids at the front of the pack and ready for school.
'We know that learning another language has great rewards – it's fun, it improves brain function and actually helps kids learn English better too,' said Minister Mikakos.
This program is expected to reach more than 5,000 children across 160 kindergartens – a third of which are located in regional Victoria. Among these are 29 kindergartens which will offer Aboriginal languages and 27 that will offer Auslan.
The $17.9 million Early Childhood Language Program will provide additional staff to teach children a new language in partnership with existing staff – at no cost to parents or early childhood services.
Learning languages at a young age is shown to have benefits such as increased reading and writing skills, cognitive flexibility, strengthened brain development and improved problem-solving skills.