Third Group of Indonesian Teachers Depart for Australia to Build BRIDGE of Learning and Friendship

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer will today farewell the third group of thirty Indonesian teachers as they began a three-week visit to Australia on an education initiative to build partnerships between Australian and Indonesian schools.

“I am confident this group will make the most of this unique opportunity to develop their professional skills and exchange knowledge and experiences with their Australian counterparts,” Ambassador Farmer said.

“Most excitingly, they, like the two groups before them, will help Australian students learning Indonesian, which is so central to developing friendship and understanding between our countries,” the Ambassador added.

At the conclusion of this three-year ground-breaking sister school BRIDGE Project - Building Relations through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement in March 2010, ninety teachers from 47 Indonesian schools in 7 provinces will have visited Australia to forge ongoing relationships between schools in both countries.

The schools, located in Jakarta, South Sumatra, Bali, East Java, South Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara and West Kalimantan, have included several funded through the Australia-Indonesia Partnership project to build 2000 junior secondary colleges in Indonesia.

Initiated by the Australia-Indonesia Institute (AII), the schools partnership project is funded by The Myer Foundation and the Australian Government. The Asia Education Foundation at University of Melbourne is delivering the program with Australian Education International and KangGURU Indonesia.

“The Institute is proud this initiative has strengthened intercultural and educational understanding between Australia and Indonesia, as the core mission of the Institute over the last two decades has been fostering friendship and understanding between our two nations,” said Professor Tim Lindsey, Chair of the AII Board.

Established in 1989 by the Australian Government to promote bilateral people-to-people links, the Institute has supported a large number of projects in education the arts, music, youth, civil society, inter-faith, Australian Studies, media and sport.

Media inquiries:
Sanchi Davis, Cultural Attache mob. 0811 936 302