BRIDGE Brings Australia-Indonesia Relations Closer

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Greg Moriarty, on Friday hosted a reception for 14 Australian teachers participating in a program that supports schools to have relationships with Indonesian schools online, BRIDGE.

BRIDGE - Building Relations through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement - enables thousands of Australian and Indonesian students and teachers to improve language abilities and gain new teaching and learning skills through connecting face-to-face online with technology such as Skype.

"I am very pleased to see more and more Australian teachers visiting Indonesia. Programs like BRIDGE strengthen the people-to-people links between our two countries and expand knowledge and understanding of each other¿s cultures," said Ambassador Moriarty.

Friday also marked the signing of an agreement between the Asia Education Foundation and the provincial office of the Ministry of National Education in Yogyakarta, ensuring more Indonesian schools participate in BRIDGE.

"I'm very pleased eight new schools will participate in BRIDGE this year, bringing the total number of Indonesian schools in the program to 73 across nine provinces," said Ambassador Moriarty.

Three other agreements were also signed earlier this week in South Sumatra, Bali, and East Java provinces.

New participating schools in 2012 are: SMAN 3 Yogyakarta, SMPN 1 Karangmojo, SDN 4 Wates, SDN Bantul Manunggal, SMAN 2 Sekayu , SMAN 1 Tabanan, SDN Kaliasin 1 and SMPN 1 Surabaya.(T007)