Barcelona: 

I.E.S. Sant Martí de Provençals

I.E.S. Sant Martí de Provençals,

the I.E.S. of the Saint Martí Neighbourhood.

Few legacies left behind by the primary school our secondary school institute (I.E.S.) was, have become as entrenched in our Centre as the individual tuition to all our students. 35 teachers take turns to teach 12 groups of secondary education students at an average of 29 students per group. A tutor follows a unique group class during their  three two –year cycles so that students and families feel embraced and may be acquainted with  every movement done by the school and every step and situation the student is involved with.

To the casual observer, our Institute seems like a one-storey building behind bars. The absence of a big building, the lack of colours on the walls and the enormous design iron bars at the façade offers this general impression. However, we are proud to be qualified as “the Saint Marti’s neighbourhood Institute” among the other institutes in the quarter. And we notice it firstly in the air. Secondly, because the number of pupils enrolled has been growing each year. And also because though we know the standards of living of our pupils is lower-intermediate we see how hard they try to adapt and to get the best we can offer so that  some of them  turn their success in their studies into an expression of personal pride which manifest itself every time they pass an exam.

Sant Martí de Provençals is the youngest institute in this neighbourhood, but it has become and it is not only a public service and a public facility to this depressed area of Barcelona, but also a positive form of spontaneously uniting a society separated by social barriers which could be overcome only through the tool we  use every day: education.