Retired volunteer teachers will support Catalan language learning in early childhood education
This January, the Apel·les Infantil project gets launched. In this project, retired volunteer teachers support four- and five-year-old children in acquiring the Catalan language, directly in schools. The initiative is supported by the Institute for Professional Development of the University of Barcelona and Òmnium Cultural Eixample.
This January, the Apel·les Infantil project gets launched. In this project, retired volunteer teachers support four- and five-year-old children in acquiring the Catalan language, directly in schools. The initiative is supported by the Institute for Professional Development of the University of Barcelona and Òmnium Cultural Eixample.
Apel·les Infantil was created after ten years of the Apel·les project: Apel·les: acompanyament per l’èxit de la lectura i l’escriptura, enfocat al cicle inicial de primària (Support for Success in Reading and Writing), which focuses on the early years of primary education. The new initiative responds to the need to begin this work at the earliest educational stages, in order to lay the foundations for literacy.
The early childhood education stage is crucial for the acquisition of oral language and the development of communication skills. The project aims to strengthen these skills through personalized support, enabling children to express ideas and emotions, listen attentively, and enjoy communicating in Catalan as a language for interaction and communication. In this way, it aims to create a solid foundation that allows children to begin learning to read and write with a richer knowledge of oral language.
The volunteer teachers visit the classrooms once a week, providing direct and personalized support to the children. They bring their pedagogical experience and educational sensitivity, explains Dolors Ferrer, project coordinator: “We are here to support the work in the classroom”.
More than 40 volunteers participate in the Apel·les project, supporting a total of 1,400 students across around 30 schools in Barcelona and its surrounding areas. In the case of Apel·les Infantil, seven volunteers work across four schools. “For now, we are starting with early childhood education in these schools as a pilot experience, which can later be expanded,” explains Ferrer.
The presentation of Apel·les Infantil took place on Wednesday, 14 January, at the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona. Attendees included the Catalan Minister of Language Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila; the director of the UB’s Institute for Professional Development, Ernest Pons; the president of Òmnium Cultural Eixample, Mercè Saura; and the programme coordinator, Dolors Ferrer. The event featured a lecture on the role of teachers in language education during early childhood, given by Montserrat Fons, a teacher and PhD in Philosophy and Educational Sciences. It also featured a round table with volunteers and teachers from schools participating in the project.