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The Barcelona Science Park joins the «Escoles Tàndem»

By 24 de April de 2012No Comments
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 24.04.2012

The Barcelona Science Park joins the «Escoles Tàndem»

On 17th April at the Gaudi Hall of La Pedrera, a collaboration agreement was signed between the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and the Ape.l les Mestres Secondary School , to join the «» program. The goal of this initiative—promoted by the CatalunyaCaixa Foundation— is to promote a unique project that promotes academic success through specialization as the core curriculum of schools.


The event was attended by Irene Rigau, Minister of Education; Manuel Rosell, chairman of CatalunyaCaixa; Marta Lacambra, general director of CatalunyaCaixa; Salvador Maluquer Salvador, general director of the PCB; James Badia, chairman of the Tot Raval Foundation; Jordi Farrés George, director of the School of Music; and Xavier Muniesa, general director of the Vincentian School Foundation.

In his speech, Saviour Maluquer thanked the CatalunyaCaixa Foundation for the opportunity to participate in a project highly committed to society and for the support of the institution to all actions undertaken by the Barcelona Science Park in the field of the dissemination of science, one of its main strategies.

“In recent years much has been said regarding the need to move towards a knowledge-driven economy and society. For Catalonia, a country with few natural resources, this has always been the driving force. From the Barcelona Science Park we wish to contribute to this strong commitment to knowledge, particularly to scientific knowledge, as only by fulfilling this goal we will have a society that is ready and able to successfully overcome the hard times we currently live “, stressed Salvador Maluquer.

Escoles Tàndem is an innovative educational project –inspired on the «» model of the US– where schools and institutions of excellence work together with the aim of promoting educational success through the curricular specialisation of the schools on one single specific subject, such as music, science, visual arts and design, etc. The program, which began in November 2011, includes at present four tandem projects, three of which are structured around music.

The «Apel·les Mestres Secondary School-Barcelona Science Park» tandem is the only project in which science is at the core of the center´s the curriculum. The aim of the project is to improve the academic results of secondary schools, while fostering among students the research spirit of other scientific careers and to educate citizens so that they are able to form “informed opinions” in an increasingly knowledge-driven society.

According to Salvador Maluquer: “The participation of the Barcelona Science Park in the Escolas Tandem program represents opening a path to the field of emerging sciences, which help build the bridges to reduce the existing gap between first-line research and secondary education. We consider our participation in this project as a challenge because, if we get good results, we will have helped the Apel. les Mestres secondary school to be a benchmark that can serve as a model of inspiration for other secondary schools”.