Bilingualism and multilingualism in primary education (Australia)

As a multicultural and multilingual country, Australia does not have an official language policy (Clyne 2005; Lo Bianco 2009). English is the de facto national language and the medium of instruction in public schools. Languages education is recognized as a key learning area but implementation is the responsibility of individual state and territory education authorities. The Commonwealth government does not direct the implementation of a languages education policy at national level, and there is no compulsory policy at primary level. At present, it can be said that the education policy does not favor bilingual and multilingual development (Lo Bianco 2009).