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0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000 Call for overseas education links Every school in England is to be encouraged to "twin" with a school overseas over the next five years. They will be urged to try for a British Council award recognising international collaboration. The moves are part of a government strategy aimed at building stronger international links among colleges and universities as well as schools. This will also highlight the contribution that students coming to the UK can make to the economy. Schools can find partners abroad through the Global Gateway website. Raising international awareness is said to be a long-standing passion for the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke. In an interview with the Times Educational Supplement on Friday, he said he hoped that one result of having a greater international dimension to school life would be that more pupils would study foreign languages. Inward investment He said he was not surprised by a recent survey showing a third of teenagers were giving up on languages at the age of 14. The government has made such language study optional, preferring to focus on encouraging primary schools to do more. "The truth is that language teaching is only effective if it is rooted very early," he said. The strategy will also seek to maximise the contribution education, training and university research make to overseas trade and inward investment. The government said that in 2001-02, UK education and training exports amounted to an estimated #10.3bn. This summer it announced a 10-year "science and innovation investment framework" aimed at increasing public and private sector spending to make the UK "a key knowledge hub in the global economy". This said, total investment in research and development in the UK in 2002 was 1.86% of gross domestic product, compared with 2.2% in France, 2.51% in Germany and 2.67% in the USA. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO