It’s early on a Sunday morning in Sydney’s north, but for a handful of Year 12 students, school is in session.
Gathered around a tape recorder with pens and paper in hand, they’re studying the writing component of the Hindi language syllabus for the Higher School Certificate.
“Although I’d consider myself an Australian, I’ve also got India,” said 15-year-old student at the IABBV Hindi School, Surbhi Malik.
“India is a big part of my life, so I chose Hindi as a way to stay in touch with that.”
Fellow student, 17-year-old Rishabh Malmotra, views Hindi as a worthwhile investment for his future business dealings.
“I’m thinking of doing a Business degree and India is the fastest growing major economy, so learning Hindi will give me a major advantage,” said Mr Malmotra.
The Australia in the Asian Century government white paper listed Hindi as a priority language four years ago.
But Surbhi and Rishabh are two of just twenty students across New South Wales studying Hindi at a senior level.
There are not enough of them to offer classes during the mainstream school timetable.
“Governments need to give incentives to school students to study a language other than English, because Australia is very multicultural now,” IABBV Hindi School Founder, Mala Mehta said.
“Until the base is strong in languages from primary school onwards, it’s not going to reflect in high school.”
The IABBV Hindi School is one of several programs that receives funding from the NSW government to conduct out-of-hours community languages classes for school age students.
Despite the programs, of the 77,163 students doing the HSC this year, only eight per cent are enrolled in a language course.
The New South Wales government said it's focusing on an early-start strategy to progress language studies throughout student's schooling life.
At the International Grammar School in central Sydney, every child learns a second and third language.
Most of the school's Year 12 students will sit at least one language exam this week.
“We really believe that to learn a language well and to feel competent and confident in that language it needs time and that’s what we’re offering to these students,” Language director at IGS, Rosalba Genua-Petrovich said.
Ms Genua-Petrovich told SBS there needs to be more focus on providing robust language programs across Australia, and that it needs to start in primary school.
“So by the time they get to high school and hopefully continue with the same language, they are well ahead of the game.”
The NSW Education department told SBS the government is committed to increasing the number of students learning languages in NSW schools.
Students studying Hindi for the HSC Source: SBS
“The Board of Studies has developed the NSW Language K-10 Framework to guide the development of 15 new languages syllabuses to support the delivery of languages programs in all schools,” a Department of Education spokesperson said.
“These will be progressively made available to schools from 2017.”
