A Flinders-based Indonesian language and cultural project for schools has won an Australia-Indonesia Institute (AII) Grant from the Federal Government.
The grant is one of nine announced by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop last week
The Flinders Jembatan Schools Project: Learn, create and play together program will offer up to 50 workshops, reaching around 1,000 South Australian students from at least 25 schools.
In Terms 3 and 4, language and cultural workshops of one to two hours will be delivered by a team led by Flinders Indonesian language program. The team will include a visiting teacher from Indonesia’s national teacher training university Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) in Bandung and volunteers from the Indonesian Students Association of South Australia.
“As well as increasing basic awareness of Indonesian culture through this exposure, the schools project aims to encourage students to consider Indonesian topics among their study options,” says Flinders Indonesian lecturer Dr Rosslyn von der Borch.
“Given its long-standing Indonesian engagement and the recent Jembatan initiative, Flinders is ideally placed to deliver the workshops.”
Workshops will be delivered in small groups and designed to stimulate conversation about Indonesia.
They will include Indonesian language proficiency and cultural activities such as cooking, playing children’s games and exploring Indonesia online. To sustain interest, the schools will be provided with workshop resource packages and teachers invited to attend a final professional development workshop.
The program will be promoted to SA primary and secondary schools in urban and rural areas.
Minister Bishop said the AII Grants Program is designed to strengthen links between the two countries by supporting activities that bring different and innovative perspectives to how we engage with Indonesia.
- Flinders Jembatan Schools Project: Learn, create and play together is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian-Indonesian Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.