At a recent meeting held in Krakow, Poland, of partners involved in the Comenius project 'Discovering Europe using new technologies', teachers from St Ignatius College's Girls' Junior Lyceum, Blata l-Bajda, noted that, compared to the partner countries, little time is given to music, art and sport development in Maltese primary and secondary schools. This made them aware of the way the local education system is more focused on academic subjects.

A discussion was also held between the project partners and Polish teachers at a school for disabled students about the way gifted and disabled students are taught in the different educational systems in the partners' respective countries. The partner schools are based in Romania, Italy, France, Portugal, Latvia and Poland, but only the Italian schools' representatives mentioned the use of learning assistants similar to local LSAs.

The other partners still described schools that cater for these students as 'special'. The concept of integration of disabled students with other students at public schools is slowly being introduced in the partner countries, but the Maltese teachers were quite astonished by their lack of inclusion.

The partners also discussed and planned the work for the project's third and final year, and learnt how to make use of technology in different settings and environments and with different levels of students.

The project is this year focusing on distinguished national artistic personalities and students from Malta are researching and documenting the life of Maltese musicians, artists, poets and writers, which will be presented at another partners' meeting to be held in Bari, Italy in May 2009.

The Maltese teachers' attendance to the meeting was supported by the Education Division and through funds allocated from the Socrates EU programme by the European Union Programmes Unit (EUPU).

For more information on the project visit the website: http:// schoolnet.gov.mt/helloeurope.