West Australian Minister for Agriculture to Visit BRIDGE Sister School in Malang

As part of an official trade visit to Indonesia from 9-13 April, West Australian Minister for Agriculture and Food, the Hon Terry Redman MLA, will today further cement sister state relations between East Java and Western Australia. He will visit students from SMA Kolese Santo Yusuf and their Australian guests from Guildford Grammar School in Malang.

SMA Kolese Santo Yusuf is hosting eight students and two teachers from Perth-based Guildford Grammar School from 6-13 April. Both schools have been sharing an important relationship under the BRIDGE Australia-Indonesia School Partnerships Project.

This project has included a three-week visit to Guildford Grammar School by a teacher from SMA Kolese Santo Yusuf in 2009 as part of the sister school education initiative to build partnerships between Australian and Indonesian schools. It is hoped this group from Guildford Grammar School will be the first of many Australian groups under the BRIDGE Project to visit their counterpart schools in Indonesia.

“All the students are very excited to be here in Indonesia experiencing firsthand the culture and language of the country. This visit has given the students more purpose in their Indonesian language studies and a more accurate understanding of modern day Indonesia, “said Sue Cooper, one of the Guildford Grammar School teachers.

Mr Redman believed this visit by Guildford Grammar School was a concrete example of the positive flow on effects of the BRIDGE Project and was an initiative strengthening intercultural and educational understanding between Australia and Indonesia. “These opportunities for our youth can only result in fostering friendship and better understanding between our two countries,” said Mr Redman.

As of April 2010, 91 teachers from 47 Indonesian schools in 7 provinces have visited Australia under the BRIDGE Project as a way of forging ongoing relationships between schools in both countries. The participating Indonesian 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.

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Sanchi Davis, Cultural Attaché tel. (021) 2550 5260 mob. 0811 936 302