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Imed Bahri
Multimedia Language Lab
Foreign exchange trips in decline as pupils use the internet to chat with children overseas instead
By Andrew Levy - Education Reporter
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Language learning holidays on the wane - some schools even ban them
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Parents have fears of their children's safety abroad
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Instead pupils swap letters or chat via videolink using Skype
For many they are a rite of passage – a first holiday away from home without the parents.
But foreign exchange trips are on the wane, according to school leaders and education experts, with some schools even banning them.
Parents fear for their children’s safety while they are abroad and are unenthusiastic about the time and effort involved in hosting someone else’s child for the return trip.
Instead, pupils often swap letters with a child from a foreign country or chat via an internet video link on Skype.
Dr Shirley Lawes, of the University of London’s Institute of Education, said: ‘These kinds of school exchanges were starting to diminish in the late 1990s. The 1996 rape and murder of British schoolgirl Caroline Dickinson during a school trip in Brittany marked a watershed moment in attitudes.’
Cultural experience: Visiting a European country for a foreign exchange used to be a popular rite of passage for many schoolchildren
The modern foreign languages specialist added: ‘Paradoxically, her murder took place in a youth hostel, not a family home. But from around that time parents, in an unwarranted way, started getting concerned about their children going into a strange family.’
A rule introduced in 2009 forced host families to undergo criminal record checks despite no evidence of any visiting children ever being abused. It was swiftly overturned, but confidence in the system had already been damaged.
Changing times: Students now chat with their foreign peers online instead
Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: ‘There has been a cultural change, certainly in this country, and families are less willing to take someone into their own family. They would much prefer for the children to go on a trip without the hassle of looking after someone at the weekend.’
Some schools have responded by still taking pupils abroad but under the care of teachers instead of exchange families. Four local authorities in Wales are known to have banned home-stays. Children stay together in hostels and visit local families in pairs.
But many teachers feel this approach limits the learning opportunites of the trip.
Hilary French, president of the Girls’ School Association, said: ‘If a school takes a trip to a French chateau to do some activities, it is a step removed. You’re always with English people – you’re not really living in the culture.’
A fall in the number of children learning foreign languages at school – by 31 per cent between 1997 and 2011 also means there is less demand for schools to arrange trips abroad.
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