www.comenius-tof.eu              

Comenius is part of the European Community's Socrates action programme in the field of education.

The overall objectives of COMENIUS are to enhance the quality and reinforce the European dimension of school education, in particular by encouraging transnational cooperation between schools, contributing to the improved professional development of staff directly involved in the school education sector, and promoting the learning of languages and intercultural awareness.

COMENIUS seeks to help those learning and teaching in schools to develop a sense of belonging to a broader and outward-looking European community - a community characterised by diverse traditions, cultures and regional identities, but rooted nevertheless in a common history of European development.

COMENIUS contributes to enhancing the quality and reinforcing the European dimension of school education by:

• promoting transnational cooperation and exchanges between schools and teacher training establishments;
• encouraging innovation in pedagogical methods and materials;
• promoting the transnational dissemination of good practice and innovation in the management of schools;
• developing and disseminating methods for combating educational exclusion and school failure, promoting the integration of pupils with special educational needs, and promoting equal opportunities in all sectors of education;
• promoting the use of information and communication technology in school education and in the training of staff working in this sector.

COMENIUS contributes to promoting the learning of languages in school education in Europe by transnational measures designed to:

• improve the quality of the teaching of European languages as foreign languages;
• improve the pedagogical skills of language teachers;
• improve the language skills of teachers of less widely used and less taught languages;
• increase the diversity of foreign languages taught;
• motivate all teachers and learners to increase the number of foreign languages they speak and improve the standard to which they speak them.

COMENIUS contributes to promoting intercultural awareness in school education in Europe by transnational activities designed to:

• promote enhanced awareness of different cultures;
• develop intercultural education initiatives for the school education sector;
• improve the skills of teachers in the area of intercultural education;
• support the fight against racism and xenophobia;
• improve the education of children of migrant workers, occupational travellers, Romanies and travellers.