INDONESIAN COUNTRY STRATEGY

Last month, Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd launched the Australia in the Asian Century Indonesia Country Strategy. The strategy outlines how Australians can harness and develop the skills needed to deepen and strengthen our engagement with our important northern neighbour. The strategy identifies a range of specific pathways to 2025 including the role of Indonesian language and cultural studies. As a school that teaches Indonesian from Year 6, has a partner school in Jakarta and offers annual study tours to Java, Scotch College was approached to be involved in the consultation phase and features in the strategy paper, which can be accessed from http://www.dfat.gov.au/issues/asian-century/.

The wider Scotch College community also has access to learning Indonesian. Parent and friends can study the language through the evening classes held on Tuesday evenings. The College, in partnership with the Balai Bahasa Indonesia Perth (BBIP), offers evening Indonesian Beginner Level 1 and 2, and Conversation classes. Winter Term 8-week courses commence on Tuesday, 30 July from 6.30-8.30pm and are available to students, staff and parents, as well as members of the wider community. All lessons are delivered by native speaker instructors from the Balai Bahasa and are held in the Kennedy Block on the Senior Campus. The cost of an eight week course is $191 and includes BBIP membership. Conversation classes are free to all current Scotch College students and staff.

To enrol in any of the Balai Bahasa classes visit: http://www.balaibahasaperth.org and follow the links to the online registration.

For more information about any of the courses please contact Kate Reitzenstein on 9383 6854 or kreitzenstein@scotch.wa.edu.au.