Improving the quality of teaching at primary and secondary schools; boosting language learning; easing intercultural understanding, chiefly through experiences of foreign exchanges. These are some of the goals that the EU has given to the Comenius program, created in 1995, which "seem to materialise in the 27-member EU". Today, the EU Commission presented a survey of the effectiveness of Comenius all through 2007. Such program, explains the Education Commissioner, Jan Figel’, "pushes Europe into the classrooms and enriches the students’ education". But this is not all about bringing the young closer, it is about "helping students and teachers improve those skills and aptitudes that are essential for a successful academic career in a society that is ever more advanced and based on knowledge". The figures submitted by Figel’ show that "in 2007 over 800 hundred thousand students had access to partnerships between schools of different countries and 30 thousand young people travelled abroad" to attend twin schools. "These are initiatives that should be encouraged, especially in 2008 explained the Commissioner , the Year of Intercultural Dialogue". (continued)
