EXCLUSIVE

INDONESIAN might just be the fastest growing language among Australian preschoolers, with three and four year olds quick to pick up the tongue of one of our nearest neighbours.

An interim report into the federal government’s early learning language app suggests preschoolers are finding it easier to learn Indonesian and Japanese than French.

The report, by auditing firm Deloitte, found the language learning iPads apps, developed by the government, are easy for children to use and that most of the 1764 kids involved in the pilot program were accessing the apps around five times a week.

Of the five languages — Arabic, French, Indonesian, Japanese and Mandarin — childcare workers said preschoolers were using the Indonesian app most regularly, indicating they are finding that language easier to pick up.

The federal government is now poised to use the language app as a template for a new maths and science app for preschoolers funded under its innovation agenda.

But the Opposition has criticised the foreign language learning app, claiming it has been an expensive flop.

Citing figures from the Department of Education’s latest annual report — which shows 41 services and just over 1600 kids are participating in the scheme — the Opposition’s education spokeswoman Kate Ellis said the $10 million pilot was reaching less than one per cent of the 400,000 children the government initially promised would benefit from the program.

“At this rate it will take 250 years for the Government to reach promised target for children participating in the program, and that’s a ridiculous fail,” Ms Ellis said.

But Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the government was rolling out the scheme “thoroughly and properly” and the app was vital to address the declining number of high school students studying foreign languages.

“The initial feedback that we have received from preschools, children, educators and parents has been very encouraging,” he said.

Senator Birmingham said he has “every intention” of rolling the app out across the country in 2017, if the final evaluation of the pilot program is positive.

Kylie Farmer, the president of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association, said the apps should be made available to every preschool child in Australia “as soon as possible”.

“It is exciting to see what’s been possible through this program already, and to make this more widely available would be great for preschoolers today, as well as the longer term benefits flowing into primary and secondary schools,” she said.