Victorian Education Minister Martin Dixon said the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority's proposal to decrease the hours spent on learning a language would "drive down the quality of language teaching".

ACARA's proposal was to decrease the hours from 700 to between 300 and 400 hours for years prep to seven.

"Being able to speak a second language opens up new horizons for people... and also helps support Australia's multicultural society," Mr Dixon said.

"If implemented, the current draft would drive down the standards of languages education in Victoria."

Australian Education Union president Mary Bluett said the union supported Mr Dixon in the matter, as local schools would be put in "a very difficult situation".

"This puts schools in a tough spot, because they would then be forced to ignore the national curriculum on this issue," Ms Bluett said.

"Languages are highly valued by the local community and parents, they (the Federal Government) should be setting a minimum number of hours and not a maximum number of hours."

She said Victoria's strong focus on multiculturalism would lead to a lot of tension within the schools, and between both the governments.

A spokesperson for Federal School Education Minister Peter Garrett said Mr Dixon's reaction was in stark contrast to his comments in December last year.

"The curriculum is still a draft and not mandatory, so each state and territory will be able to tailor it to how they see fit," the spokesperson said.

However, Mr Dixon said while he had not "changed" his stance on his support for the curriculum, it must not be "at the expense of high quality student outcomes"