“Schools: Partners for the Future” initiative

The “Schools: Partners for the Future” (PASCH) initiative was launched in February 2008 by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office. PASCH strengthens and creates a global network of more than 2,000 PASCH schools with particular ties to Germany. The Goethe-Institut supports around 600 PASCH schools in the national education systems of over 100 countries.

The initiative is coordinated by the Federal Foreign Office and implemented in cooperation with the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA), the Goethe-Institut, the German Academic Exchange Service and the Educational Exchange Service of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The network of German schools abroad and schools offering the German Language Certificate is being strengthened. Furthermore, cooperation with schools is being stepped up with a view to anchoring German as a foreign language more firmly within national education systems. In addition, scholarships for pursuing a course of study in Germany and opportunities for school exchanges and twinning programmes are made available.

Goals of PASCH

The initiative is designed to arouse and sustain young people’s interest in and enthusiasm for modern-day Germany, German society and the German language. A global network of partner schools of the Federal Republic of Germany is being created; the schools become part of an international community of learners through shared activities and exchange. 

PASCH offers attractive training courses that help give pupils and teachers qualifications that will serve them well in the longer term, thereby building upon the skills that the young people will need to study in Germany and in their later professional lives. It additionally aims to establish lively and long-lasting ties to Germany and to encourage schools, teachers and pupils to share their thoughts and ideas openly with one another and to work together. Furthermore, PASCH is linked to other foreign cultural relations and educational policy initiatives such as the “Kulturweit” voluntary service.

Role and activities of the Goethe-Institut

The Goethe-Institut helps the more than 600 schools it supports to include or expand German teaching on their curricula. It offers teachers further training in pedagogical methods and language courses, and equips schools with modern multimedia-friendly teaching, learning and cultural studies materials. Within the framework of the initiative, the Goethe-Institut has additionally sent teaching experts out to assist the partner schools around the world. Youth programmes are run in Germany for pupils from participating schools, allowing them to improve their language proficiency, develop their intercultural skills and experience Germany and its culture at first hand.

PASCH-net, where the international PASCH community meets up online, connects roughly 2,000 schools and 600,000 PASCH pupils worldwide.

About PASCH

The website provides information about the participating institutions and their activities worldwide. An interactive world map provides an overview of the network of participating schools: each school can post a brief profile on the site. Some active participants present their projects and useful practical tips. PASCH-net also provides information about the international PASCH Youth Courses in Germany and about funding for school twinning.

Information about PASCH Initiative (in several languages)
World map
School profiles
Projects around the world
PASCH Youth Courses
School twinning

Learning material and interactive features

On PASCH-net, teachers and learners alike will find videos, audios and texts (available to all users free of charge) about current topics as well as ideas for teaching German as a foreign language and downloadable worksheets. To search for material for young German learners, you can filter by topic, level of language proficiency, format and test preparation.
Interactive features like the “comments” function included in all learning materials invite users to participate. PASCH-net also announces worldwide German language contests with attractive prizes for PASCH pupils. Teachers and pupils can “take over” PASCH-net’s Instagram channel and share content themselves there.

Learning material
Contests
PASCH-net on Instagram

PASCH-Global online newspaper by and for PASCH pupils

Young people from all over the world blog to one another in German on PASCH-Global. Their texts, photos, videos and audios provide glimpses of their lives and their thoughts about Germany. See below for information on how you can contribute to the blog.
 
Information about PASCH-Global and how to contribute

PASCH Learning Platform

The Moodle-based PASCH Learning Platform gives German teachers an opportunity to create virtual workspaces for teaching and/or taking part in online teacher training tutorials. Our online course “Moodle Tools for Teaching” explains how to use the PASCH Learning Platform for teaching or teacher training purposes.

Information about PASCH Learning Platform

Information about studying in Germany and for PASCH alumni

PASCH school graduates receive general information about studying in Germany, e.g. about available scholarships and PASCH programmes, and useful links, e.g. to the PASCH Alumni Platform. PASCH school graduates currently studying in Germany share their experiences here.

Information about studying in Germany
PASCH Alumni Platform

Registration and logging into PASCH-net

Most offers on our website are accessible to the general public. Only PASCH users who wish to post comments or take part in our contests or communities on PASCH-net or in our Learning Platform must sign up once and can subsequently log in with their e-mail address and password. Registered PASCH teachers can create registration codes needed for signing up for colleagues and pupils at their PASCH school.

FAQ about PASCH Initiative and registration

Newsletter and social media

Registered users can subscribe to our monthly PASCH Newsletter and/or Newsletter for Pupils after logging in under “My PASCH”. PASCH-net followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram also regularly receive information and updates about PASCH-net.

My PASCH
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

info@pasch-net.de
www.pasch-net.de

The PASCH network encompasses more than 2,000 schools worldwide. The Goethe-Institut supports over 550 schools in the national education systems of over 100 countries. Within the framework of the "Schools: Partners for the Future“ initiative, these schools have included or expanded German teaching on their curricula. For the most part, German is offered as a second foreign language at the schools. The PASCH network additionally includes about 140 German schools abroad supported by the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA), 27 schools with a focus on German, as well as around 1,100 national schools which offer the German Language Certificate of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany.