Low Language Skills Hurt International Business in Georgia
GlobalAtlanta, October 10, 2005
Nema Etheridge for GlobalAtlanta
For Georgia to become a leader in the global market, its requirements for foreign language and cultural instruction must be elevated, Jose Ignacio Gonzalez, director of Hemisphere Inc., told participants of an International Education Summit held at the Carter Center last week.
“If Atlanta and Georgia want to be global players, language skills must be mandatory in public schools,” said Mr. Gonzalez, who travels throughout the Western Hemisphere, promoting Georgia as a center for trade and investment with the public-private organization, Hemisphere Inc. He noted that the quality of public schools was one of the first considerations made by businesspeople looking to relocate abroad.
Mr. Gonzalez was one of some 60 businesspeople, educators, state legislators and parents who considered ways Georgia could better position itself in an increasingly global marketplace last Thursday at a summit organized by the Center for the Advancement and Study of International Education (CASIE). The center is a nonprofit Georgia-based organization that promotes multi-lingual and cultural education across the state.
Making foreign language and cultural instruction widely available to elementary, high school and university students across the state would better prepare Georgia students for working in foreign markets, as well as attract foreign companies to the state, forum participants said.
“From an economic development perspective, good schools can really attract and retain business to an area,” said Kenneth Vedra, superintendent for more than 20,000 students in Academy School District 20 near Colorado Springs, Colo., and guest speaker at the forum.
Mr. Vedra's district has 29 schools, including elementary, middle and high schools, operating on an International Baccalaureate (IB) program, which offers internationally recognized curricula, assessments and teacher training sessions organized by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organization.
Graduates from IB programs are generally proficient in two foreign languages, knowledgeable of foreign cultures and have high school diplomas that are recognized by universities worldwide.
The IB program in Colorado's District 20 was instrumental in landing a recent investment from United Kingdom-based Barclay's PLC, Mr. Vedra said. “They chose to relocate a call center to our area because there was such a high level of foreign language proficiency in our district,” he said.
Drumming up state-wide support and implementing international education programs in public schools is a job not only for parents and educators, but for businesspeople and legislators, as well, the forum participants said.
Retired CEOs, local international businesspeople and chambers of commerce that have successfully attracted foreign direct investment to their area could help promote the need for international education throughout the state, the participants suggested.
“We need the business community to get involved with legislators and tell them what they need,” said State Sen. Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, a panelist at the event. He also said that he hoped that Governor's Education Finance Task Force, organized by Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2004 to explore new ways to fund public schools, would learn more about the potential of IB programs.
Georgia currently has 18 schools administering IB Diploma programs for grades 11-12. No primary or middle schools in the state offer IB programs.
Also, no Georgia public school currently offers a language immersion program in which school children study a foreign language from kindergarten to graduation. There are 260 public schools currently offering such programs in the U.S., including 14 in Florida, eight in North Carolina, six in South Carolina and 35 in Virginia.
For more information on CASIE, contact Alex Horsley at (404) 841-3880 or casiedirector@aischool.org or visit www.casieonline.org. For more information about Hemisphere Inc., contact Abby Smith at (404) 962-4834. Contact Mr. Williams at Tommie@tommiewilliams.com.
