"TREBALL DE RECERCA"

In this you say I wanted to talk about something I think it is quite unfair: the “Treball de Recerca” or Research Project only being done by students in Catalonia.

The Research Project is a project, which consists in a theorical and practical part, that students have to do between first and second of batxillerat and it is important for your Batxillerat final mark.

I don't think this project is a bad idea, because it makes you gain experience in working on this kind of projects, it prepares you for projects you'll have to do at university, and if you choose a topic you are interested in, you can learn a lot about it and it can be very interesting. But I find it very unfair that only the students in Catalonia have to do it. It may be a good project, but it takes also a lot of work and this extra amount of work it makes a big difference.

When you are in first of batxillerat you have to start thinking about your topic and maybe start working on it. Then, during the summer, when the school year is supposed to be over and you should have time to relax (or in case you have a summer job, relax a little less and work), you also have to work on your Research Project. Of couse you are not going to be working on it every day and every hour and it's not going to ruin your whole summer, but in my case, one of the things I like the most about summer is that, after a whole school year working, I can finally be three months without school responsabilities. And the Research Project takes me this away.

Finally, when you start second of batxillerat, your project probably won't be finished yet, so you will still have to work on it while you are starting the new school year, having exams and other school work to do. Because yes, it is an independent project, it doesn't belong to any subject, so you have to find some time to do it between the six hours you spend at class and the extra hours you spend at home doing homework or studying for the different subjects.

When you think about it like that, you see that it actually needs a lot of time and work, and I think it is unfair that while Catalan students are spending all that time and effort in doing the project, the rest of the students in Spain can spend that time doing other things. I don't really know how it works in the rest of Spain and maybe they have more work from other things that here in Catalonia we don't have, or maybe they have to do another kind of project, but I think this is just a little work compared to the Research Project here in Catalonia.