A campaign has been launched in an attempt to save a Vietnamese bilingual study program from being cut from a primary school in Melbourne’s west.

Footscray Primary School reportedly informed parents and guardians of the decision via a school newsletter on August 26.

The newsletter stated that a “leadership team” had reached the decision to cut language learning back to two hours a week based on curriculum feedback from more than 150 families over 18 months.

Almost 400 people have signed the online petition against the school’s decision to drop its long-running practice of classes being taught in Vietnamese for up to five hours a week.

The language-immersion program is one of only a dozen in Victoria, and the only one of its type in the western suburbs.

– TiVi Tuan-san