New Unified School Council
Consell de l'Escola Nova Unificada | |
| Abbreviation | CENU |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Modern School |
| Formation | July 27, 1936 |
| Founder | Joan Puig i Elias |
| Dissolved | February 10, 1939 |
| Headquarters | Barcelona |
The New Unified School Council (Catalan: Consell de l'Escola Nova Unificada, CENU) was an education institution that was created on 27 July 1936 in Barcelona by Joan Puig i Elias, who was also its first president.
The aim was to create a new free, secular and co-educational school, with classes in Catalan, based on libertarian principles. The new school regime was inspired by rationalist principles of work, ensuring that all workers could arrive from the primary school to higher education according to their capacity.
The purpose of the decree that created CENU was to coordinate education and to organise buildings suitable for educational purposes. It was a considerable challenge when in 1930 there were 3049 schools in all of Catalonia and it took another 5641 to be able to meet the needs of literacy and basic education. The situation was comparable to the Balearic Islands (248 more schools were needed to be built) and the Valencian Country (2450 schools to be built). The pedagogical purpose was "to promulgate to all [students] a basic and solid culture that would convert them into men developed in all aspects, able to contribute on concrete activities, to the benefit of the individuals themselves and of the society in general".
The libertarian pedagogue and anarchist Joan Puig i Elias (1898–1972) was the initiator of the CENU, continuing the work of Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia. He studied teaching at the Escola Normal de Barcelona and obtained the title of teacher in 1919. His pedagogy aimed to put the child at the center of education and to educate not only reason but also feelings, in constant contact with nature. Affiliated to the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) from his youth, from 1932 he chaired the section of teachers of the Union of Intellectuals and Liberal Professionals of Barcelona (Sindicat d'intel·lectuals i Professionals Liberals de Barcelona). In July 1936 he held the presidency of the New Unified School Council. The institution was dissolved in February 1939 by the Francoist dictatorship.