National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools
This is a national policy statement approved by the MCEETYA in 2005. The Statement provides a rationale for embedding a focus on Asia and it broadly identifies the knowledge, understandings, values and skills required to engage with Asia in the context of existing policies and practices in teaching and learning.
- Index
- Defining Asia
Defining Asia
While the word 'Asia' is in everyday use and is printed in atlases, it is nevertheless a widely contested concept. 'Asia' can be defined in geographical terms, but it can also be described in terms of cultural, religious, historical and linguistic boundaries or commonalities.
In Australian schools, studies of Asia are likely to cover the sub-regions of:
- North-east Asia including China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan
- South-east Asia including Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, East Timor, the Philippines and Cambodia
- South Asia including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics includes the countries known as the Middle East in its definition. Some schools extend the definition of Asia to the Asia-Pacific region.
