At the end of February the Board of Directors of JECSE (Jesuit European Committee for Primary and Secondary Education) met in the city of Alicante (Spain) hosted by the community of San Francisco Javier and Colegio Inmaculada. JECSE is one of the European interprovincial collaboration networks belonging to the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials. Three of the five members of the Board of Directors, Antonio Allende, SJ (Spain), Brian Flannery (Ireland) and Agnieszka Baran, Director of JECSE (Poland) were able to attend the meeting.

During the three-day meeting they discussed, among other things, the analysis of the European reality of education, which is so diverse in our schools, in order to establish the basic guidelines for the next ten years.

Agnieszka Baran and Brian Flannery stayed in Alicante until Friday to participate in the meeting The Erasmus Brightest Day which took place in the school Inmaculada de Alicante, organized by this school together with Nuestra Señora de Montesión (Palma) and Jesuitas Educació (Cataluña). The day was held with schools in the eastern area in mind and was led by internationalisation coordinators Aitor Bilbao (Inmaculada School), María Grandio (Montesión) and Marta Munté (Jesuitas Educació)

The meeting was attended by Quim Molina (area coordinator of this EDUCSI), Mr. Andrés Ajo (director of the School and Adult Unit of SEPIE (Spanish Service for the Internationalisation of Education, attached to the Ministry of Universities), Roberto Garrido (director of Inmaculada School), Miguel Poza and Antoni Parellada, among others.

The aim was to publicise the work carried out through the different Erasmus+ projects in which our schools participate, to establish common work networks and to encourage the rest of the schools to work on the issue of internationalisation with the help of the European funds provided by Erasmus+. There were different round tables on global citizenship and internationalisation, good practices of teachers in exchange programmes, mid-stay or teacher training, presentations on what the Erasmus+ programme is and its future challenges, as well as testimonies of students sharing their experiences.

Agnieska and Brian left Alicante grateful for the hospitality of the community and the school, and with homework for the future: how to encourage our schools in Europe to make use of this tool and others that help the internationalisation of our students. 

Jesuitas España