In an interview with Time magazine, Peter Drucker, one of America’s foremost management theorists, when asked “What kind of a century are we in, then?” responded: “In this 21st century world of dynamic political change, the significant thing is that we are in a post-business society. Business is still very important, and greed is as universal as ever; but the values of people are no longer business values, they are professional values. Most people are no longer part of the business society; they are part of the knowledge society.
The greatest changes in our society are going to be in education.” When the journalist later suggested whether the world of the 21st century would be characterized by the competition among the three great trading blocks –Europe, North America, and Asia –Drucker answered: “Yes, and the activities of three big trading blocks will have political consequences. I think we are already in the midst of this, and the pattern is not going to be fair trade or protectionism but reciprocity.” When asked: “Do you think we and our institutions are ready to cope with what you call “new realities”? Drucker affirmed: “Many are still stuck in the world of 1960. What we face now is totally new and dynamic -and we are quite unprepared for it.”
These statements from a man calloused in the world of business reveal a reality of the present characterized by dynamic change on all fronts, by the power conferred by the possession of information and knowledge, by the primacy of education in that context of profound alterations, by relationships among persons, institutions, and peoples based on the concept of reciprocity. with determination Europe searches for the attenuation of centuries old divisions; the nations of the Pacific, led by Japan, try to find a common understanding which may grant them a more condign place in the international forum; the Sultanates of Islam search desperately for a more cohesive and forceful expression of their influence in today’s world.
The progress attained in the technology of communications has made the international system of borders almost irrelevant. The quest for new markets has given birth to supra-national economic colossuses, capable of exerting a deep influence in the lives of peoples and nations. The rending of the iron curtain seems to have stolen the last visible and palpable barrier from a world forced to accept more and more, with less and less understanding. This vertigo of political and technological change has fostered a constant movement not only of people, but mostly of ideas and of information.
Knowledge of things and events has been made instantaneous, the volume of information has been suffocating, our capacity for absorption tested to its limits. Peoples and cultures, which some years ago could have been known only through the power of the imagination, visit us daily in our living rooms, so that, what was foreign, exotic, adventurous, has become common place. The need for a new private international school in the Oporto area is self evident. At the end of the twentieth century we are witnesses to an accelerating trend towards cultural globalization and a growing need for unhindered mobility for professionals and their families. In particular, the internationalization of northern Portugal due to the country’s present EU membership status has created new educational needs for both local foreign children.
This need could be adequately answered by a high quality school, from the primary through university entry level, with English as the base language and the British educational system as the model. The educational program of this school would permit full equivalency throughout all forms with the Portuguese educational system and other international schools and universities. CLIP – Cologio Luso-Internacional do Porto is designed to achieve the following goals:
1 – To offer a student – centered, thoroughly modern, academically challenging, and internationally focused program of studies;
2 – To offer Portuguese students the opportunity to acquire an international education that will prepare them for attendance of both local and foreign universities;
3 – To provide foreign students with the opportunity to continue their education in a sequential, comfortable fashion;
4 – To offer students of Portuguese parents, who have attended schools in other countries, a proper process of school reintegration;
These objectives could be implemented by the following instruments: – A curriculum based on current British secondary programs, allowing pupils to s it for G.C.E. (General Certificate of Education), G.C.S.E. (General Certificate of Secondary Education), I. G .C.S. E. (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) at O – Level, but complemented with studies of Portuguese language, history and social studies, granting equivalence to the Portuguese secondary education forms 9 and 10; – A higher education access curriculum based on and in accordance with the LB. (International Baccalaureate, Geneve, Switzerland) curriculum, which is currently accepted by most universities across the world, and is also equivalent to form 12 of the Portuguese secondary educational system.
CLIP will furthermore develop its activities around seven basic educational principles:
* Academic Excellence: The attainment or the highest academic standards through a stringent and fully integrated curriculum that stresses individual excellence and group achievement;
* Learning how to learn; the content or the various disciplines is developing at such a rate that makes an encyclopedic approach to education quite unviable. By focalizing on how to learn, our aim is to prepare students for a lifetime of learning and personal development;
* Cooperative Learning: The instructional program of CLIP is based on the premise that students can and should learn from each other, and that they must shoulder the greatest responsibility for their education;
* Diversity and Cross-Cultural Education: The underlying concept of International Education is a learning process that positions the study of the diverse expressions of human life at the core of its program of studies;
* Individual Needs and Concerns: The program focuses on the needs and differences of each individual student. The central programmatic focus in this regard is a Teacher Advisor Program coordinated by a Guidance Counselor;
* Participatory Decision-making: The governance of CLIP is based on a democratic model for decision making as articulated in its Charter. CLIP recognizes the preeminent role of parents teacher and students in the educational process;
* The Arts: The arts are essential to a complete understanding of our nature as human beings and as members of cultural groups. In this regard the arts must be taught as independent cl discipline and integrated on the entire program of studies.