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Italian class chopped as rules change

Arrivederci: Funds for Italian class have bee chopped as rules change. Picture: Getty Image

New migrants will benefit from changes to a community languages program designed to spread funding more evenly.

A recent review of the program commissioned by Citizenship and Multicultural Interests Minister Mike Nahan found about 80 per cent of its $1 million annual budget went to just one language - Italian.

The program, set up by the State Government 30 years ago, provides funding to not-for-profit community organisations to teach languages other than English.

Dr Nahan said the original intent of the funding was to help community groups pay for language lessons outside normal school hours.

But much of the funding provided to the Italo-Australian Welfare and Cultural Centre was "siphoned off" to employ Italian teachers in Catholic and some public schools, instead of used for after-school lessons.

"The program wasn't designed for that," Dr Nahan said. "The Commonwealth and the State heavily fund public and Catholic schools and specifically require them as part of that funding to teach languages other than English."

Under changes to the funding model, money for in-school Italian lessons provided by the IAWCC will stop at the end of this year.

The decision has angered members of WA's Italian community.

An online petition calling for the Government to reverse its decision says the IAWCC's language program has run for 36 years in mainstream schools and does not deserve to be cut.

Catholic Education executive director Tim McDonald said he was concerned that schools would now be forced to find other ways to pay for Italian language programs.

Last year the IAWCC supplied 86 Italian teachers to Catholic schools, including relief teachers.

"Small regional and primary schools will likely feel the impact of these changes most," Dr McDonald said. "All schools will now need to find funds for a specialist language teacher among other competing priorities."

"Dr Nahan said he had increased overall funding for community languages by 25 per cent.

Demand was growing rapidly for previously-unfunded languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Swahili.

"It's about equity and access," he said. "Thirty years ago the Italians made up slightly less than 10 per cent of the population and they're less than one per cent now."