Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I.P
., in short Camões, I.P., is a public institute, integrated in the indirect administration of the State, with administrative and financial autonomy and its own assets, pursuing duties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under its supervision.
Camões, I.P., mission is to propose and implement the Portuguese cooperation policy and to coordinate activities undertaken by other public entities involved in implementing that policy. Its mission is also to propose and implement Portugal’s educational policy, to disseminate the Portuguese language and culture in foreign universities, and to manage the foreign Portuguese teaching network at primary and secondary levels.
There are more than one million bilingual children in the UK, i.e. children who are learning English as an additional language to the language they speak at home. Many of these children are from hard-to-reach communities. As such, they face a number of social challenges and integration issues that may lead to low self-esteem, lack of ambition and poor school performance. Native Scientist‘s aim is to empower bilingual communities by using role models to encourage learning in core subjects: literacy, science and maths.
Lusofonias has also worked occasionally with Bilingualism Matters. Bilingualism Matters is a Centre at the University of Edinburgh, founded by Prof. Antonella Sorace. They study bilingualism and language learning and communicate what they know to enable people to make informed decisions based on scientific evidence. Bilingualism Matters has partner branches around Europe and the US run by international teams of researchers. Bilingualism Matters thinks everyone can enjoy the benefits of having more than one language.