TEACHER EXCHANGE
Exchanging teachers provides a stimulus towards the Fellowship’s goals. Visiting partner schools demands good preparation and a duty return to make the most of experience gained to the advantage of education at one’ s own school.
Exchange is possible in Holland thanks to the availability of subsidies from the Teachers Exchange Scheme and PLATO. It is not possible to subsidise exchange of pupils in primary education. The fellowship does not include this form of exchange in its activities. The various possibilities for teacher exchange within the twelve member countries should be listed .
ANDERSEN CONGRESS
An annual congress should encourage and promote the links between teachers and facilitate decision- and plan-making in achieving the fellowship’s goals. Representatives of one school per country take part. The participants play a coordinating role in their own country; in Holland, the National European Education Platform in Alkmaar. In the experimental stage every school will be able to send a delegation to the congress. International coordination is in the hands of the European Community. The congress wil1 take place in a different country each year. That country will be responsible for the practical organization of the congress.
The first congress will take place in Odense (Denmark) during three days in October, in all probability: 28th till 31th October 1993.
TIMING
The proposal to establish the fellowship was made known to the Minister of Science and Education on 12 March 1991. On 3 April 1991 a positive answer was received. Since then all member countries have been approached in order to ascertain which schools have the name “Andersen”. The list is not yet completed.
The following have not vet responded: Luxembourg, France, Greece, The Walloon community in Belgium and the south-eastern provinces of Germany. These countries have been approached again. According to our information there are primary “Andersen” schools in: Italy (1 ), Spain (3), Holland (3) and Germany (8); 15 in total. One Andersen school in France we discovered ourself . There appear to be no Andersen schools in Ireland, the UK, Portugal, the Flemish community in Belgium, and Denmark.
Other schools than Andersen schools showed already great interest, for instance in the UK.
The Andersenschool in Woerden, Holland, together with the Spurvelundschool in Odense, Denmark, is preparing for the foundation of the AndersenFellowship. A committee has therefore been formed for this purpose.
Gontact will be established with the European Commission in Brussels with a proposal to adopt the Andersen Fellowship to a certain degree, both financially and at an organizational level.
Towards the end of 1992 and lateron the first schools were invited to join the fellowship; a modest start with a maximum 17 schools foreseen.
At the experimental stage it is important that TES or PLATO enables teacher exchange. The success of the experiment is largely dependent on the actual involvement of the participating schools.
The experimental stage takes place between now and January 1994. An extension to July 1994 is possible. It must be possible to start up all the fellowship’s planned activities within that period, including publication of the bulletin. In the meanwhile contacts will have been established with various supporting bodies.
The trial period will be closed with an evaluation which must demonstrate whether it is desirable to establish the fellowship on a permanent basis. If this proves the case, all primary schools, kindergartens and schools for special education in the member countries can, in principle, be invited to join. The number of members will have to be limited, depending on manpower and available budget. Entry criteria will be adjusted annually.