Bob Hawke launched a national scheme to achieve this in 1987 and had as little success as every other prime minister before or since. Julia Gillard tried again last October when she said every school student should learn an Asian language.

The then prime minister had just launched her government's Asian Century white paper, one of whose goals was for all students to have access to the study of Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian or Japanese (the so-called big four languages). The PM said she would force this curriculum change on the states and territories by tying it to federal funding for schools, although, as critics pointed out, it would cost $100 million a year to provide the necessary teachers and resources.

Peter Garrett, the then schools minister, moved the goal posts back a bit by later announcing a $15 million national plan that would see "every child have access to the study of an Asian language from their first day of school by 2025".

A subsequent bill passed by parliament last November emphasised the importance of the Asian century to Australia's economic future and the role of Asian languages and studies, saying: "Under the plan, every Australian student will have significant exposure to studies in Asia across the curriculum, including access to studying an Asian language from their first day of school."

Australian exports to Asian countries are worth some $250 billion a year, so the region is crucial economically and strategically to Australia's future. But no one in state or federal government has ever acknowledged that Anglo-Australian kids refuse to spend the estimated 2200 hours said to be needed to get a real grasp of an Asian language because it's just too hard.

Fewer than five in every 100 prep to year 10 students are learning the rudiments of one of Ms Gillard's four priority languages and, by year 12, the ratio drops to about one in 16. Clearly, persuading all students to learn an Asian language well enough to converse in it is a forlorn hope.

Researchers at Deakin University have now tried a new approach by switching the focus from the students to their teachers, with a plan to boost the "Asian literacy" of the pedagogues, arguing this will help increase the number of students' tackling an Asian language.

In a report released last week, the researchers note that much of the debate regarding education about Asia in schools concerns "what we want kids to learn" rather than "what sort of capacity do teachers and principals need to have to accomplish that".

Report co-author and Deakin professor Christine Halse said the research found the critical factor for teachers and principals was a "person-to-person contact, direct engagement with Asia". She said this shifted the "knowledge base from learning in a vacuum to what was important in terms of the curriculum, which was intercultural engagement".

The 150-page report (Asia Literacy and the Australian Teaching Workforce) was commissioned by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, which sets down the national standards required of teachers and principals. The Deakin researchers drew on the results of online surveys, what they call "extensive narrative data collected from teachers and principals", case studies of Asian language teachers in different schools and states, as well as general discussions held during a Melbourne forum in June last year.

The national surveys were completed separately by 1319 teachers and 432 principals aged between 23 and 63, a majority from secondary schools, across Australia. More than 290,000 teachers and principals actually work in Australian schools, most in the primary sector, yet on the basis of this 0.6 per cent skewed sample, the researchers estimate more than 100,000 teachers have visited at least four Asian countries at one time or another – and that an astonishing majority have stayed there for at least six months.

More probable is the finding that 60 per cent of the teachers said Asia was never mentioned during their teacher training. Equally unsurprising is the researchers' conclusion that the most Asia-literate teachers are those who have experienced "some form of extended cultural exchange in an Asian country (lasting more than three weeks)", and that teachers with no such experiences "had significantly lower overall Asia literacy scores".

The report says current schooling policy and curriculum documents define Asia literacy broadly, and do not limit the definition to teaching and learning about specific countries. Yet the researchers found that teachers and principals defined Asia literacy in terms of "what is currently practical and possible in their classrooms and schools".

"This pragmatic approach has two consequences. First, there is wide diversity across schools in terms of the meaning, interpretation and penetration of Asia-related teaching and learning across different curriculum areas," the report says. "Thus, the practice of 'Asia literacy' ranges from the narrowly defined work of a lone language or specialist teacher, through to schools that define Asia-related learning broadly and involve all students, teachers and experts from the immediate and wider community in teaching and learning across all curriculum areas.

"Second, Asia-related learning is defined by the expertise and/or interests of a particular teacher or school. In practical terms, this means that 'Asia literacy' is often narrowly interpreted as teaching and learning about the language, culture or a cultural feature of a single country. Consequently, the broader focus of Asia literacy in relation to the Asia priority in the Australian curriculum challenges teachers and principals to apply a broader, more comprehensive notion of Asia and Asia literacy than is the current practice in many schools. Meeting this challenge will require multiple forms of support and assistance."

So, what does Asia literacy mean? The report says the survey of teachers and principals found that they view learning about Asia as "building national harmony and cohesion, and equipping students with the capacities for living in an increasingly globalised world".

The Australian curriculum, however, describes it as "teaching and learning that provides students with a knowledge of Asian societies, cultures, beliefs and environments, and the connections between the peoples of Asia, Australia, and the rest of the world' and the skills to communicate and engage with the peoples of Asia so they can effectively live, work and learn in the region".

In their report, the researchers say teachers and principals do not see the economic returns for the individual or nation as a primary rationale for or benefit of Asia-related teaching and learning. "The fact the white paper on Australia in the Asian Century was released during the course of this study may mean that its arguments have not yet infiltrated schooling discourses and practices," the report says.

It adds that the disparity in views reflects differences between public policy and educators about schooling as a public or private good, or that teachers and principals working with primary and lower secondary students "are less cognisant of and removed from the economic drivers and benefits of Asia-related learning".

"Regardless, such disparity affects effective implementation of the Asia priority and indicates an urgent need for further research to elucidate the reasons for and to develop strategies and an action plan to align educators' perspectives on the rationale for and benefits of teaching and learning about Asia in schools with those of public policy."

Such jargon makes reading the report feel like you've swallowed a large sleeping draught, and it also lacks any acknowledgement of just how extensive and complex “the Asian region” is. Not only does Asia cover 30 per cent of the Earth's land area, it is also occupied by more than 4 billion people or some 60 per cent of the world's population.

Nearly 50 countries are classed as being in Asia, ranging from Afghanistan and Armenia to Bangladesh and Bhutan; from Cambodia and China to Iran and Israel; from Sri Lanka and Syria, to Tajikistan, Thailand and Turkey and on to Vietnam and Yemen. Most of these countries are multi-ethnic and their peoples speak a multitidude of languages so how could a teacher or a student become “Asia literate” about such a large slice of the globe?

In the report's conclusion, the researchers say their findings "are categorical" that an Asia-literate teaching workforce requires continuous, high-level tertiary study and professional learning, including professional and cultural experience of Asia through exchange, travel and study programs.

That a majority of teachers completed their initial teacher education without learning anything about Asia indicates a need for initial teacher education programs to ensure all graduate teachers "are equipped to deliver the Asia priority in the Australian curriculum".

After poring over the survey responses, the teacher narratives, the case studies of 12 Asian language teachers and doing an extensive search of the literature, the Deakin researchers came up with only eight recommendations. These include proposals for:

A national strategic plan to ensure principals and teachers at all stages of their careers have access to Asia-related professional learning.

Asia-relevant content knowledge and skills to be included in all initial teacher education courses.

Provision of opportunities for teachers to undertake exchange, travel and study programs in Asia.

New ways of measuring and providing feedback on Asia literacy among teachers and principals.

Extra training on how to use computers and the web to learn about and connect with Asia.

A final note: In a commentary on the white paper's call for all students to learn an Asian language, former political adviser and education consultant Dean Ashenden wrote that this was a complete waste of time: "There can be few if any societies in the world as rich in languages as Australia. Need Mandarin speakers? We've already got more than 330,000 of them. As for the other languages urged on schools by the white paper, we have 111,000 Hindi speakers, 56,000 Indonesian, 44,000 Japanese, 80,000 Korean, 233,000 Vietnamese and 37,000 Thai," he said.

"And that is without counting hundreds of thousands of Asian international students, many of whom would jump at the chance of employment in Australia if and as needed. A total 37 languages – 17 of them Asian – are spoken as a first language by more than 20,000 people in Australia. Compare that with year 12 enrolments in 2008 – 5256 in Mandarin, 4910 in Japanese and just 1311 in Indonesian, most native speakers already."

Geoff Maslen's ebook of essays The End of School draws on his time as a teacher and his 40 years as a contributor to The Age's education pages. It is available from renovateducate@gmail.com