Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Visits Shiv Nadar School
Gurugram: Shiv Nadar School (a not-for-profit initiative of the Shiv Nadar Foundation in K12 private education), today hosted Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, at its Gurugram campus. The visit to the school was part of the Minister’s current visit to India as a proponent of developing bilateral student and teacher exchange programs, under the Australia-India BRIDGE School Partnerships Project.
Established in 2015, Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue & Growing Engagement (BRIDGE) is an international program that establishes school partnerships between teachers, students and school communities. BRIDGE maximizes the use of ICT in classrooms and encourages students to collaborate on projects, practice language skills and develop life-long friendships with students at their partner school. Shiv Nadar School is one of the participating schools in the Australia-India BRIDGE School Partnership Project.
During her visit to the School, Minister Bishop participated in a live interaction with the BRIDGE students in Australia and India on the theme of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. She also shared her insights and thoughts around the theme of “Careers of the Future” to inspire budding leaders of tomorrow at the Shiv Nadar School.
Speaking to the students and teachers, Minister Bishop said she was delighted to be at the Shiv Nadar School.
“This is a time of unprecedented change and we see technological advancements disrupting the way we live, the way we communicate and the way we work. We can see that the jobs of the future, the careers of the future are very different. Australia is the second most popular destination in the world for international students and last year there were 70,000 enrolments from India for students to study in our universities, in our institutions and we have some of the best in the world,” she added.
Col. (Retd) Gopal Karunakaran, CEO, Shiv Nadar School said, “It was a pleasure to host the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon’ble Ms. Julie Bishop at Shiv Nadar School today as a part of the Australia-India BRIDGE School Partnership Project. BRIDGE is an important initiative that builds global competence through student engagement between Australia and Asia and we see both our students and teachers benefitting immensely from this program. Initiatives such as these greatly encouraged at schools to build the spirit of internationalism and to recognize diversity in a globalized world.”
As part of the visit, the Minister also took a tour of the Shiv Nadar School Campus and visited the school’s IT and Robotic Labs. The students performed a fusion of contemporary and traditional Indian dance in her honor.