What does Asia literacy mean?

Asia literacy equips young Australians to make sense of their world. It is a core part of a future-focused Australian curriculum for the 21st century.

Asia literacy is knowledge, skills and understandings about the histories, geographies, societies, cultures, literatures and languages of the diverse countries of our own neighbourhood.

The Australian Curriculum has adopted Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia in one of the three cross curriculum priorities and the general capability on intercultural understanding:

• Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia states that: ‘The Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia priority provides a regional context for learning in all areas of the curriculum. This understanding underpins the capacity of Australian students to be active and informed citizens working together to build harmonious local, regional and global communities and build Australia’s social, intellectual and creative capital.’
• General capability on intercultural understanding states: ‘Students develop intercultural understanding as they learn to understand themselves in relation to others.’

For the purposes of Australian schools, Asia comprises the following regions and countries:

• North-East Asia (China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan)
• South-East Asia (Indonesia, Myanmar/Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, East Timor, the Philippines, Cambodia)
• South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives)