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Diversity? It’s Academic.

Who says there's no multicultural representation on TV? Kid's programming is putting visiblity in primetime to shame.

ia4Who says there isn’t diversity on Australian television?

In fact there could be a better representation of the changing face of multicultural Australia on kid’s television than there is in primetime. At least there is positive visibility in Channel Seven’s long-running kid’s quiz, It’s Academic.

ia2Yesterday the kids from Malek Fahd Islamic School in Greenacre beat the kids from Unity Grammar in Austral and Birrong Public School in Birrong. All three are Sydney schools.

It’s Academic, which has been running in various forms since 1968 with hosts including Dan Webb, Andrew Harwood, Sandy Roberts, Alec McAskill, Jeff Newman and John Bailey. Simon Reeve has been hosting since 2006.

Yesterday he even conceded, “My Arabic pronounciation? I’ll work on it during the week, ok?”

Great to see such diversity on the box.

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8 Responses

  1. 5th Grader also has had a diverse range of kids. From what I could see they have had Asian, European, Mixed-Race and Australian kids on there.

    The last time I went to a record Rove was chatting to a kid and they talked about being Jewish. Not necessarily a nationality as aside from a religion as such I know but I agree with Jed… “All just normal kids”.

    5th Grader is prime time isn’t it?

  2. Haha, Birrong is my old school! But i’m just proud they are attending ‘It’s Academic’ because it just shows how far they have come. And it turns out that in today’s game, Birrong Won! Hooray! Goodluck in the rest of the week Birrong! (yellows)

  3. Agree with Jonathan Lin – how is nine non Anglo-Saxon people diverse? I still like the show though…kids TV seems to be one of the few genres with which the commercial networks are better than the ABC. Quality, not quantity ABC…

  4. @Jonathan. LOL Idiot. It’s a shame we still need to point this out though. If i had watched this episode i wouldn’t have though anything of it. All just normal kids to me.

  5. The Malek Fahd Islamic School at Greenacre is on part of the site that was the old Hoyts/Greater Union Skyline Twin Drive-in at Chullora.

    It’s Academic now needs to have on students from a deaf school, a blind school, and a school for children with cerebral palsy. Now that would be diversity.

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