The University of Valencia and Escola Valenciana have signed a specific agreement, within the framework agreement of cooperation subscribed in 2003, which will set in motion a Research and Advice Unit for Multilingual Education (UEM-UVEG) within the academic institution, linked to the Inter-university Institute for Valencian Language Studies (IIFV). The formal signing was made by the Principal, Esteban Morcillo, and Vicent Mortero, the President of Escola Valenciana.
With this agreement, both institutions intend to promote research on multilingual education, both at Univeristy and at the different levels of non-university education, through the creation of work groups and the colaboration among the educational centres (primary and secondary schools and universities) and others organizations involved in this matter.
This agreement will promote multilingual education programmes, advice on the design and the evaluation of the results of these programmes, create and maintain a database of documents and resources, publish research and formation materials, organize courses, seminars and others informative acts, and participate in a web about multilingual education.
The Principal referred to the educational system and said that ‘it must be perceived and conceived as a global system’. ‘The University of Valencia is not a close system; on the contrary, our students come from primary and secondary education, and therefore, we have to mantain close colaboration’, pointed to that effect. That is why ‘University cannot turn away from school. This type of initiatives are particularly important because we can improve the system’, he said.
Esteban Morcillo also insisted on the fact that this initiative, in which the different Valencian universities with Philology studies are involved, - Valencia, Jaume I University of Castellón and Alicante-, could be extended to the five public universities from the Community at different intensity.
For Escola Valenciana, this agreement represents a consolidation of an organization especialized in a Valencian academic key subject such as multilingualism.
The creation of UEM-UVEG represents an advance for the University of Valencia and it is supposed to be an academic entity that generates proposals on the field of multilingualism based on scientific principles and taking into account the sociolinguistic realities of students.
The objective of Escola Valenciana is to promote direct communication in order to generate projects together with the units for Multilingual Education from the University of Alicante and I Jaume University. Teams formed by University professors and members of the Comissió d’Educació d’Escola Valenciana (Educational Comission of Escola Valenciana) are required to create an academic network and to be a reference of three public universities.
According to the president of Escola Valenciana, ‘this programme will allow us to establish an effective coordination and to initiate advisory projects at schools in order to counteract the current confusion and disinformation generated by the Valencian Educational Administration. In this sense, the Research and Advice Unit for Multilingual Education UEM-UVEG, together with the respective units from the universities of Alicante and Castellón have a common objective which is to become an academic model regarding to Valencian multilingualism’.
The treatment of multilingualism requires the criteria and study of the maximum authorities on the subject. That is why the acceptance of the University of Valencia to create this Unit is very important. With the creation of UEM-UVEG new connections of colaboration are establish between the University of Valencia and Escola Valenciana. The president of the new unit is the professor Maria Conca and the team counts on other professors from the Faculty of Language Studies and the faculty of Teacher Training of the University of Valencia, and also on members from the Comissió d'Educació d'Escola Valenciana.
The event was also attended by the Vice-Principal for Studies and Language Policy of the University of Valencia, Isabel Vázquez; the Dean of the Faculty of Language Studies, Translation and Communication, Casles Padilla; the Secretary of the Faculty of Teacher Trainig, Vicent Miralles; the director of IIFV (Inter-university Institute for Valencian Language Studies), Ferran Carbó; and representatives of the units for Multilingual Education from the Universities of Alicante and Castellón.
Last update: 7 de november de 2012 08:00.
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