The NSW Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Student Achievement – Community Languages Schools acknowledge the commitment of outstanding students from community languages schools. In 2023, 230 students were nominated, with 95 senior and 135 junior nominations from 32 different languages considered for the awards.
This year ten students received the Minister’s Award for outstanding achievement in the study of their community language, contribution to the development of intercultural understanding and involvement in the school and wider community at the Sir John Clancy Auditorium, UNSW. Among the ten Minister Awards recipients were Marzan Mehdi (Bangla), Sainandhan Narasiman (Tamil) and Dinel Perera (Sinhala).
A total of 141 junior and senior students received a Highly Commended or a Commended Award. All other nominated students are acknowledged by a Merit Award which will be presented at their community language school later this year.
This includes 75 recipients of 2023 Minister’s Awards, Highly Commended, Commended and Merit Awards for Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Bangla, Punjabi, Nepali, Sinhala and Tibetan.
74 Recipients list
2023 is the 31st year of these awards. Students from Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian, Bangla, Chinese, Filipino, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Nepali, Persian, Polish, Russian Hindi, Indonesian, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Swedish, Thai, Tibetan, Ukrainian and Vietnamese were this year’s recipients for Minister’s Award, Highly Commended and Commended Awards.
NSW is one of the most successful multi-cultural societies on the planet with specific programs to promote culture and harmony. 35,547 Students are currently studying in the Community Language Schools Program. Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Vietnamese, Greek, Tamil and Japanese have the greatest number of students studying in community language schools in 2023.
Aunty Maxine Ryan welcomed the gathering to the country and emphasised the significance of consistently passing on one’s cultural identity to younger generations. She has passed on her passion for Aboriginal arts and crafts to grandchildren, especially Shell art which she learnt from her mother.
The event also had a performance by the Tibetan Children’s School of Newcastle and Hunter Region, a piece of music called the Potato Palace using the traditional Tibetan guitar called the dramyin.
The Minister’s Award recipients of this year led the evening program with Prof. Ken Cruickshank, Director of Sydney Institute of Community Languages Education(SICLE) announcing the winners. Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning, Prue Car, was the keynote speaker.
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