What do the students used to the rolling hills of Dungog High School have in common with students at a school in the crowded, bustling city of Johor Bahru, Malaysia?
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More than you might think. Last week the Dungog High School community welcomed Razi Ahmed, a physics and maths teacher from Malaysia to the school for a two week visit as part of the Australia-ASEAN BRIDGE School Partnership Program.
ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and BRIDGE stands for Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement. The project was established in 2008 and is also supported by the Federal Government.
The two schools will exchange resources and work together to improve the students' cultural empathy and global awareness. In 2020, Dungog High's Japanese/English teacher, Linden O'Brien will take a reciprocal visit to Malaysian to continue the partnership. She is one of 78 teachers around Australia taking part in the program.
"We are focusing on the idea of global empathy and the idea that students from both schools can work with each other to build their idea of what life is like outside their context, with a focus on sustainable development goals," she said.
"We are looking forward to working together around the world to improve our situation and improve our future."
This includes climate action, good health and responsible consumption.
The students will connect with video calls and conferencing and packages will be exchanged filled with different challenges for each other.
"It's yet another way for our students to experience that awareness that life continues beyond Dungog and we do have something special we can share with the rest of the world."
