News

Saxon school students benefit with Cambridge English

14 January 2010

A new education project in Germany, recently praised by Saxony’s Culture Minister, will see secondary school pupils in the region sit English tests set by a department of Cambridge University. The bilingual initiative, which fully comes into force later this year, will see pupils from 27 Secondary Schools in Saxony take Cambridge ESOL’s Preliminary English Test.

Already operating in some pilot schools, the project is aimed at motivating pupils to learn English for improved prospects in the workplace. It’s the result of a recent agreement between The Cultural Ministry of the Federal state of Saxony, Cambridge ESOL and the Cambridge ESOL Test Centre in Leipzig.

In a recent press release issued by the Ministry of Education in Saxony, Culture Minister Roland Wöller said:

“This internationally recognised English qualification is highly regarded and enables access to attractive job opportunities.It is a great opportunity for our students,” he continued: “This special language support leading to a recognised qualification is an additional offer at the middle schools in Saxony, making them ever more attractive.”

Manuela Richter, Cambridge ESOL’s explains the benefits this project will bring:

“This reflects a trend in education which is seeing more people learn English at an earlier age. Students in Saxony graduating with a Cambridge English certificate will be able to show potential employers and education institutions exactly what they can do in English.  By collaborating closely with our colleagues, we have been able to implement a system that is backed by expert knowledge and has the resources to benefit as many students as possible.”

The 27 Schools taking part in this project cover all of the major cities in the region including Plauen, Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. Four of the 27 secondary schools have already begun testing with the programme being fully implemented from November 2010.