The European Commission has many programmes to integrate European education. The most relevant of these for Oulu citizens in 2006, writes Bastian Fähnrich, may be the Comenius programme.

Comenius is about EU schools cooperating. According to the Commission website, it seeks to “enhance the quality and reinforce the European dimension of school education, in particular by encouraging transnational cooperation between schools”.  They claim it will “enable participants to exchange experiences, explore different aspects of European cultural, social and economic diversity, increase their general knowledge and learn to understand and appreciate each other’s views.”  And they say it will further “the learning of languages and intercultural awareness.”

But how is all this to be achieved? And what does it have to do with Oulu?

Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670), a Czech pedagogue, theologian and philosopher, promoted international peace and understanding through education. The programme that takes his name encourages EU schools to form a ‘school partnership’. A partnership lasts from one to three years and consists of at least three schools, each from a different country. Students and teachers get “an opportunity to work together on one or more topics of mutual interest.”

To partner up, schools must first find possible partners. They send out interested teachers who, once they have succeeded in making contact and presenting initial ideas, make a so-called “Comenius Plan.” The plan lists concrete activities, a means of evaluating the process, and the results of the schools’ cooperation.  Following that, a lot of paper work is done to get financial and administrative support from the European Commission and National Agencies.

School Partnership at the Oulu International School

Oulu’s own Oulu International School (OIS) is currently in a three year Comenius project with four EU schools: a school in Weißkirchen Austria, in Nyborg Denmark, in Mogilany Poland, and in Palma de Mallorca in Spain. And, at the end of May 2006, teachers and students from these countries visited Oulu.

Students stayed with Finnish families and both teachers and students took part. The programme was put up by OIS projects coordinator Mrs Marja Peedo. During their stay visitors presented their countries at assembly, took classes, gathered with the staff, met for evaluation and planning, and explored Oulu. Some of them even went to Rovaniemi.

According to the coordinator from the Danish school, Ms Bodil Nielsen, and Ms Agnieszka Krawczyk-Piąstka, the Polish coordinator, the initial idea for a partnership arose in 2003 in Krakow, at a meeting of teachers from across Europe. Mr Wolfgang Köfl, from the Austrian school, added, “the European Commission provides also Internet forums where teachers can search for possible partner schools, present ideas and exchange experiences-”

Generally, they say, the partnership aims to increase participants’ understanding of different EU societies and cultures. Ms María Paz Yllera, the Spanish coordinator, says cooperation “is to get an idea what Europe means” and to learn about “countries that are involved in the European community.” In addition, the objective is to give participants opportunity to reflect, in a joint effort, upon social relations between teachers, students, and parents in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Poland and Spain.

The coordinators organised group discussions in their schools’ classes, partly in English, as students must report the outcome of their discussions to students and teachers in the partner schools. Ms Krawczyk-Piąstka explains, “In the first year of our school partnership we discussed school rules. We made and exchanged posters telling what we’re allowed to do and what we’re not allowed to do in our schools. There were more similarities than differences. It was really interesting, and it made our children more aware of the other countries.”

In the second Comenius year, the topic was family relations. Ms Yllera states, “We talked about the problems that children have in their relationships with their parents, and they compared the differences between the countries. For example, with Finland, we were talking if the kids are allowed to have tattoos and piercing.”  Mrs Peedo breaks in. “My students were very shocked that you were discussing tattoos and piercing which were not an issue for our students at all. The group of children here in Finland was not so interested in the topic, but keen in getting to know that in Spain the topic lead to a lot of discussion.”

Students Ms Maura Leuee and Ms Maria Elena López from Spain, and Ms Maria Panek from Poland, nod approvingly. They mention that students are also sending letters and e-mails to each other, which even enables them to continue classroom discussions on a more personal level. According to Ms Yllera, the exchange of mail is “a good opportunity to practise their English language skills”. Mr Köfl points out that “for our students it is important to use English as a means of communication, and not to have English just as a school subject.”

Teachers and students find direct contact between their schools rewarding. Besides pen friendships, this applies especially to visits to partner schools and countries. Ms Krawczyk-Piąstka says that for some students the trip to Oulu means “to go abroad for the first time,” or even “the only opportunity to go to Finland.” The students present at the interview agree, smiling, and say that they “are delighted and very happy to spend time together with Finnish families.” They also remark that, by staying with Finnish students and their parents, they and their hosts can learn about differences in family life.

But students and teachers don’t only learn from each other through differences. Mr Köfl gives an example for school life. “Sometimes Danish, Finnish, Polish and Austrian teachers,” he says, “encounter the same difficulties in their schools; for example, behavioural problems of students.”

However, as much as the teachers face similar difficulties, solutions can be different. By sharing their experiences, explains Mrs Peedo, teachers may eventually arrive at new or better solutions- “The more you interact and visit other schools and countries, the better you see how people elsewhere do things in a different way. Otherwise you get stuck in your own way of dealing with problems, and you can’t see beyond that. But if you visit and get to know other schools in countries around Europe, you’ll notice that they’ve come up with solutions to the same problems we’re having here in Finland.”

These and other insights into European societies and cultures, they say, are highly valued. They assure that this is the case for all the teachers and students in the partnership. Mr Köfl even declares that, based on their experiences in the past years, “Europe became closer.”

In fact, the third year of their Comenius Project will give teachers and students the opportunity to go “beyond Europe”. They will cooperate with a school in Biharamulo, a town in northwest Tanzania. This school was built in 1999 and 2000 with the help of the Austrian Youth Red Cross and the Tanzanian Catholic Church. According to Mr Köfl, there are already plans to discuss African immigration into Europe, and to learn about daily life in Tanzania and Biharamulo, which is “quite different compared to countries and cities in Europe”.

So far the partnership between OIS and the schools in Austria, Denmark, Poland and Spain seems exemplary in showing how much one can build on Comenius’ ideas. Let’s see what they have to say after the project finishes.


Links & Further References
Comenius – European Cooperation on School Education
http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/socrates/comenius/index_en.html

Oulu International School
http://www.edu.ouka.fi/koulut/ois

Lower Secondary School Hauptschule Weißkirchen in Austria, nearby Graz
http://www.hsweisskirchen.at

Comprehensive School Borgeskovskolen in Denmark, Nyborg
http://www.borgeskovskolen.dk

Upper Secondary School Mogilany in Poland, nearby Krakow
http://www.gimnazium.mogilany.pl

Comprehensive School Colegio La Porciúncula in Spain, Palma de Mallorca