PA/02/17 13 January 2017
Australia and India deepen school partnerships
Australia and India have reached a new milestone in their bilateral school collaboration with the arrival of Australian teachers in Delhi under the 2017 Australia-India BRIDGE School Partnership program.
Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Ms Harinder Sidhu, today hosted an event to bring together the 2017 BRIDGE participants and alumni of previous Australia-India school partnership programs. Such programs have been operating between Australia and India since 1998. More than 290 Australian and 230 Indian teachers have benefited from them, and many have continued to expand relationships with partner schools in the years since.
At the event, Ms Sidhu presented awards to a number of Indian schools for their achievements in strengthening Australia-India school relationships.
Ms Sidhu congratulated the participants on their efforts.
“Engagement between our school systems is so important for Australia-India ties,” she said.
“By influencing our children’s views of each other’s countries, we influence the future of our bilateral relationship. There is also much we can learn from each other’s experiences in delivering best practice school education.”
BRIDGE is funded by the Australian Government and delivered by the Asia Education Foundation (AEF). It aims to build teacher capacity in developing intercultural understanding, and enhancing information communication technology (ICT) skills and establish sustainable school partnerships. It maximises the use of ICT in classrooms and provides students with personal, real-time connection with their peers in the region. For more information about the program visit http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/programmes/school-partnerships