By Jordan Baker, The Sydney Morning Herald,
A Chinese government-funded language and culture program will be removed from NSW public schools and replaced with one run by the NSW Department of Education.
The Confucius Classroom program, run in 13 NSW schools, had been paid for by Chinese government agency Hanban, and employed teaching assistants that were vetted by the Chinese government for “good political quality” and a love of “the motherland”.
The report found the “NSW Department of Education is the only government department in the world that hosts a Confucius Institute, and that this arrangement places Chinese government appointees inside a NSW government department”.
One Chinese-Australian parent likened it to “the infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party into the NSW public school system”. It was the only language program in NSW schools that was funded by a foreign government.
The NSW Department of Education has been reviewing the program since May last year, and on Friday will announce the program would end when the agreement with Hanban expired in December. Department staff would continue to monitor the classes until then.
“Following the review of foreign government/organisation support for language education in NSW
government schools, the NSW Department of Education will be ending its Confucius program in 13
schools,” department secretary Mark Scott said.
“The review found the Confucius Institute program arrangement with NSW Department of Education is unique and the program is better placed with a higher education provider.
“The department has accepted all the review recommendations and already begun work on
implementing them. Confucius Institute students make up 15 per cent of Chinese-language students in NSW public schools.”
The department would replace it with a $1.2 million program to teach Chinese at the schools affected, which included four primary schools, including Chatswood and Rouse Hill, and nine high schools, such as Fort Street, Concord and Homebush Boys’.
“Schools will have certainty and clarity by getting a six-month transition to the Chinese-language classes I have announced today,” he said. “We will continue to deliver first-class Chinese-language and cultural programs to students in NSW public schools.”
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell supported the decision. “Whilst the department’s review concluded there was no evidence of any undue influence in the Confucius classrooms, there were clearly inappropriate governance arrangements in place,” she said.
The Confucius Institute is headquartered in Beijing’s agency known colloquially as Hanban, the Office of the Chinese Language Council. It also runs Chinese-language programs at Australian universities.
Several universities are tightening their agreements with the institute after the Herald revealed some signed deals explicitly stating they must comply with Beijing’s decision-making authority over teaching at the facilities.
