TWO months ago, at a speech in Singapore, Kevin Rudd promised to make Australia the most "Asia-literate" country in the West. Yesterday, the base from which he was working was clear - only 32 students had taken up Mandarin during the past two years, to sit for the Higher School Certificate.

So small was the Chinese Beginners course that more than 12 per cent of students could not be accommodated by their schools and had to study with outside tutors. Two students sat for the exam overseas, at centres in Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong; one in Bulahdelah; another in Armidale; the rest at seven schools in Sydney.

"Seeing people, high-powered people like Kevin Rudd, speaking it is a bit of an encouragement," Matthew Bolton-Adams, a student at the International Grammar School in Ultimo, said after the exam. "It's just really positive - it opens up job opportunities for the future."

Bolton-Adams's school, a private school that prides itself on the teaching of languages, introduced Chinese three years ago after consulting parents. It had six students enrolled for the beginners' course - a subject even the school's Mandarin teacher, Jufen Wang, said was too difficult.

"Totally Aussie kids really take a while to get used to it," she said. "Beginners is very challenging. It's too hard."

Ms Wang said enrolments would strengthen as the ties between China and Australia became clearer to students. But the beginners' course, and yesterday's exam, was still too demanding in vocabulary and reading. "It is very difficult to choose it from an exam point of view," she said.

Bolton-Adams planned to study engineering after the HSC and was considering working in China. So was his classmate, Giles Jephcott, who hopes to study Asian business.

In the federal budget, $62.4 million was promised to stimulate the teaching of Asian languages over the next three years.

Yesterday 28 people sat for the Indonesian Beginners exam and 86 students who had been studying Chinese for more than than two years completed their exam. The state's smallest course - Arabic Beginners, with a cohort of one - was also examined. WHAT'S ON TODAY Morning: Indonesian (background speakers), Italian (beginners), Korean (continuers), Latin (continuers)

Afternoon: Japanese (background speakers), Spanish (beginners)

TOMORROW

Morning: General mathematics

Afternoon: Food technology, Italian (extension)