NSW Department of Education and Training

EAPS ACTIVITY AREA 4: COMMUNICATION
OUTCOME
The Department effectively communicates with and promotes its programs and
services to its culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
The Department has a comprehensive communication strategy to ensure students, families
and community members from language backgrounds other than English are able to access
information about the programs and services that are available.
The Department conducts promotions via the community language media, translates
important or frequently requested documents into key community languages in printed and
web-based forms, and funds access to the Telephone Interpreter Service and on-site
interpreters.
Achievements
Schools
In 2007-2008 a total of $570,047 was provided to support 5,986 on-site and telephone
interpreter assignments.
Table 2 - On-site and telephone interpreting assignments in schools by regional
requests 1
Type of assignment Primary Secondary TOTALS
Onsite assignments
Number of onsite assignments 1,229 1,361 2590
Cost of onsite interpreting ($) 242,131 226,553 468,684
Telephone assignments
Number of telephone
assignments
1,424 1,972 3396
Cost of telephone interpreting ($) 41,373 59,990 101,363
Total number of assignments 2,653 3,333 5,986
Total cost of interpreting ($) 283,504 286,543 570,047
1
The figures shown are net and reflect data for the calendar year Oct 2007 – Sept 2008
Data collected throughout the year showed the ten most commonly requested languages for
the conduct of interpreting assignments were Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin,
Korean, Persian, Dari, Turkish, Khmer and Spanish.
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