EDUCATION : STUDY CONFIRMS ADVANTAGES OF SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS.

• Position: Brief article

Pupils, particularly at secondary level, who are involved in partnerships led by their schools with other schools abroad see an improvement in their skills, especially cultural and social skills, IT and foreign languages. That is what a new study on the impact of partnerships between schools in different countries, published on 11 December 2012 by the European Commission, has found(1). Such partnerships are funded through the Comenius exchange programme, the schools' equivalent of Erasmus.

In seven out of ten schools, the impact of partnerships on pupils' cultural awareness and expression as well as social and civic competences was deemed to be "strong" or "very strong". This was followed by computer skills (54%) and communication in foreign languages (52%).

The study found that the scheme benefits teachers, who were able to improve their...