ES
The Royal Academy of History (RAH), Camilo José Cela University (UCJC) and the Vicens Vives publishing house have joined forces to organise the largest history competition at school level ever held in Spain. Under the title Navegantes por la Historia, the challenge aims to promote knowledge of the culture and history of Spain among students in year 4 ESO from schools and institutes throughout the country.
The initiative was presented today in the Salón de Reyes of the Royal Academy of History in Madrid. The event was attended, as representatives of their respective institutions, by Carmen Iglesias, Director of the Royal Academy of History; Jaume Vicens, General Manager of the Vicens Vives publishing house; and Nieves Segovia, President of SEK Education Group.
Carmen Iglesias pointed out how the teaching of History has been a constant concern and occupation for the Royal Academy of History and, in this regard, she recalled the “Report on History texts and courses in secondary schools” that the institution prepared in 2000, as well as the most recent reports on the allegations to the reform of the Baccalaureate and the reform of the EVAU, denouncing the loss of relevance in timetable and compulsory nature of the subject of History.
Likewise, she detailed the initiatives that the institution has carried out to open channels to provide new generations with quality content in attractive formats. In this regard, she referred to the collaboration with Amazon, to integrate into its voice assistant, Alexa, the contents of the Biographical Dictionary; the development of various training resources, available on the website of the Academy; courses for teachers of Secondary and High School for the dissemination of our content and, of course, the development of the Hispanic History portal, a pioneering project with more than 25 million users who consult from 194 countries.
For her part, Nieves Segovia pointed out that “today we are not only presenting a history competition, but we are also celebrating the collaboration of SEK Education Group with the Royal Academy of History and Vicens Vives with the common goal of promoting historical knowledge, a right of everyone, especially of the new generations, who are the ones who are going to build the future. Navegantes por la Historia is an exceptional, timely, necessary and essential educational initiative. Knowing the history of our country is the key to building our own identity. It is also a motivation for learning that transforms us and helps us to develop critical thinking which, in short, means being free to think, understand and construct our own ideas with a real foundation and based on facts”. She also stressed that “the SEK educational community is proud to be part of this initiative that so well reflects the vision of my father, Felipe Segovia, for whom the sea has always represented a meeting place for civilizations and cultures and, therefore, conceived the Cervantes Saavedra as another learning space”.
To conclude the round of speeches, Jaume Vicens pointed out that “Navegantes por la Historia is a stimulating and creative project for Secondary Education students, as it poses challenges and overcomes challenges, while being rigorous in its approach, proposing elements for the understanding of our historical legacy, so fundamental to know our cultural identity and create a sense of belonging and citizenship”.
Jaime Olmedo, technical director of the Royal Academy of History, then took the floor to explain the details of how the contest will work, stating that “the contest will have a registration phase, an elimination phase with several challenges to be solved by all participating teams and, finally, the top ten will reach the final phase, where they will carry out a project based on the Hispanic History portal. The three best teams will receive as a prize an educational and cultural trip aboard the schooner Cervantes Saavedra, where each student will also be one more of the crew during the crossing that will depart from Valencia and reach Peñíscola, Tarragona and finally Palma de Mallorca”.
