Five schools from La Cerdanya and four more from another part of the border that have a bilingual educational system have carried out, for the first time, an exchange that has been framed in several visits to local producers in the region. The objective is to encourage students to get to know each other, improve their knowledge of Catalan and French and bring the two cultures closer, taking into account their proximity.
The project is promoted between the Regional Council of Cerdanya and the PAT Alim d’Aquà and has been carried out with the help of a multi-year Eurodistrict grant for the development of cooperation projects in the Catalan Cross-border Area and the collaboration of the Institute for Development and the Promotion of the Upper Pyrenees and Aran IDAPA).
La Verge Cerdà , which is part of the Cerdanya Ecoresort de Prullans (Cerdanya), students from Alfons I school in Puigcerdà and Guingueta d’Ix were able to learn the process of growing vegetables and fruit trees. The educational technician of the Regional Council of Cerdanya, Laia Alsina, has said that the territory is “full of local products and many times the children do not come from where the things come from”, detailing that the visits are made both in the Alta and in Lower Cerdanya.
Alsina has indicated that up to now “there has been no link” between these centers that participate in the project. In this sense, Isabel Lanza, a foreign language teacher at Alfons I, adds that the experience also allows teachers to see other educational models. “You have to share, learn, go to one place and another and not differentiate ourselves by the simple fact of a border.”
For his part, a 4th grade student, Arnau Gisbert, says that these stays help them make new friends and communicate in French. Meanwhile, MarÃa Gómez, from the Boug-Madame school, comments that, during the exchange, the students share activities to foster and promote the territory, such as visiting animal farms and cheese factories, among others.
In addition, 4th and 5th grade students from Baixa Cerdanya from Mare de Déu de Talló de Bellver de Cerdanya, Vedruna de Puicerdà , Bac de Cerdanyola d’Alp and Santa CecÃlia de Bolvir have also participated in Alfonso I. Meanwhile, in Upper Cerdanya, the French and Catalan bilingual schooling modality classes of Angostrina, Font-Romeu and Ur have done so.
