Nadaline, 14 octoober, 2008

Last year from November 13-17 Kaiu Basic school headmaster Maris Lääts, English teacher Päivi Aljamaa and 9th grade student Anar Pajula were in Baia Mare, Rumania at the Comenius project „Higher quality in education with family support“ first meeting.

On May 21-24 Maris Lääts, Päivi Aljamaa and 7th grade students Marian Mäeots and Silje Vokksepp took part in the second meeting in Usak, Turkey.

On October 8- 12 Turkish and Rumanian partners came here to Estonia.
The project issue “Higher quality in education with family support” connects three different countries with the same problem. As all three schools are situated in the area with not enough employment, so lots of parents are forced to look for a job outside the quarters, in bigger centres of their country or even abroad. That kind of situation decreases family influence on their children’s growing. In cooperation with partner schools there are tried to be found different possibilities and exchange experiences which can help school and family collaboration and better understanding.

Kaiu Basic School partners are Mihai Eminescu National College in Baia Mare, Rumania and Õzel Üftade Lisesi in Usak, Turkey.
During the days in Romania, they worked out questionnaires for students, teachers and parents and in the same time they learned the local life.

The project coordinator Päivi Aljamaa was amazed by the activity of Romanian students and their good English. At the very moment Aljamaa praised Anar Pajula, who was in Romania and the girls in Turkey, that they managed with the representation about their country and school very well and they took actively part in making up questionnaires.

During the second reunion meeting in Turkey they looked over the project unified results. They tried to come around, why they are different in some parts and what are similar problems in schools which are far away from each other.

Each school divided their successful cooperation experiences between home and school. The VII ( now in VIII) class student Silje Vokksepp was capable to report in English her working team opinion and Kaiu Basic School is happy that 13-14 year old students can already manage in foreign language environment.

After the meeting activities they familiarized with Õzel Üftade Lisesi new hostel-private school , which is very valued by parents for its strict disciplinary and good academic results.

Also the school achievements in school-family cooperation as well as strategies for the future were introduced in Kaiu.

The Romanian and Turkish partners were impressed by the e-school system. Romanian teacher Laura Ilinca Szebeni said honestly, that came to Kaiu with a prejudice of a little country school, but she was compelled to modify her assessment. "Such system is a very good example for Romanian schools," she was sure. Another Romanian teacher Mariana Gabriela Hudrea noticed that the learners’ and the teachers’ relationship has a big family feeling. Differentially from her own school, Romanian teacher noticed, that we have more extracurricular activities.

The Turkish teacher Cumhur Kilicoqlu was also worried by a little prejudice. Before the travel he thought that only Turkey has such hospitality. "Estonians are friendly, kind and sincere," he found.
All the three countries are very thankful for the European Union, which supports this Comenius project.

The project gives students a chance to find out more about other countries and people and gives them a chance to be in this project, what hopes to make schools and families have better cooperation.

All students who are in this program, think that it is necessary to know foreign languages. You can understand how important is learning languages when you have to communicate with foreigners. The project teaches students to see these problems, what you often do not see and teach them to understand problems like teachers and parents do.

During the program, students were able to talk about their opinion about issues connected with the project.

As the students from Turkey and Romania stayed in our students’ homes, the hosts and guests were able to learn new things about their countries.