EDUCATION AND YOUTH PROGRAM
The Institute aims to build groups of young and potentially influential people in both Australia and Indonesia, who have an understanding and knowledge of the two countries.
The Institute supported a range of activities focussed on young people and the development of education links.
Pilot Indonesian Classroom Teacher Exchange
The Institute encouraged greater contact between Australian and Indonesian schools through its support for a pilot teacher exchange between Manjimup in Western Australia and Bali. Under this project, two Indonesian primary school teachers from the Sunrise School in Kerobokan and the Dyatmika School in Banjar Tangtu will travel to East Manjimup Primary School for a period of two weeks to experience Australian classroom practice and to assist with the development of Indonesian study programs.
Exchanges of teaching personnel such as undertaken in this project provide many benefits to both the Indonesian and Australian participants for the transfer of teaching skills and curriculum development. As a result of the successful development of this project, the Institute has established a new Schools Exchange Small Grants Program to facilitate similar exchanges between primary and secondary schools in Australia and Indonesia.
Clean Up the World
The Institute helped to raise public awareness in Indonesia of environmental issues through its support for the Indonesia Institute of Sciences 2002 Clean Up the World event in Jakarta.
This now annual event involved over one thousand young Indonesians in Jakarta and five other coastal areas in Riau, South Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Papua and Java. It was intended to raise public awareness of the damage uncontrolled rubbish disposal causes to coastal environments and to create ongoing benefits by encouraging young Indonesians to protect their natural environment.
Australian social geography textbook
Following the excellent feedback received for the first edition of the Australian social geography textbook Geografi Australia, initiated and published by the Institute, an updated second edition was produced in 2002. Following the distribution of the first edition to 1000 schools in South Sumatra, Central and East Java, use of the book has been incorporated into the Indonesian primary school curriculum in those areas.