IES Pla d'en Boet

IES Pla d’en Boet. The fact that there were so many children interested in the project was due to the kids’ openness, the nature of the school and not least to Elvira Carrió, the enthusiastic teacher who introduced us in the classes. Elvira is organising drama classes in the after school hours, therefore she has a position a similar position in relation to the kids as we have, and knows them through personal relations.

The school our group is coming from is a public high school. According to locals, the level of public education in Catalonia is usually high. We made interviews with the mothers of two boys (Dani and Quim) in September, they were both satisfied with the school, although they were aware of the fact that the quality of the education in there is not very high. In their opinion – and the opinion of the teacher - this was partly due to the large number of pupils coming from non Catalan speaking, immigrant families, and their integration “pulls down” this level. The active fluctuation is also moderates development. Many immigrants look at Mataró, as a gate, where they start a new life. Later they leave to other places or back home. The subjective critique and the objective content might seem controversial, but there is no mistake: the newcomer families do not want to win anything, but to gain stability, to get on in life in confidence. The public school helps this process, gives a bases for the kids – not more. It is not a segregated school, only one that gives enough to all youngsters to start life, find a job, although does not make further studies easy. Only less than the half of the children go on to higher education. Most families are interested in sending their children to work, therefore after finishing school most of them attends a vocational training or a course that is financed by the state.