On the 8th of January the P.PRAÇA project was inaugurated. A restaurant area, open 24 hours a day, which is also a space for socializing, studying and culture. The ceremony took place in the two schools that host this space, the Escola Superior de Educação | ESE and at the Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto | ISCAP and attended by the Minister Manuel Heitor, the Mayor of Matosinhos, Luísa Salgueiro, and the Administrator of Social Services of P.PORTO, Ivo Costa Santos, who took this opportunity to present the Food Plan 2020.
The President of the Polytechnic of Porto, João Rocha, fits P.PRAÇA within the scope of a broader program for the requalification of school infrastructures, an investment project of around 27 million euros.
“This is a very ambitious project, which is now starting and which aims to not only provide schools with adequate facilities for the teaching and research process, but also, after a period of absence, we want to create conditions for students to feel welcomed ”.
Manuel Heitor recognizes in this project an orientation for the future of Higher Education institutions. "Meeting spaces and interaction between people are an intrinsic component to education, even if not formally stated in the curricula." The minister points out that these initiatives are part of what it means to educate, create values, while stimulating interaction and coexistence. "This concept" - he says - "is applied in the most modern Higher Education Institutions (IES) , in which the food spaces are linked to culture, study or simple interaction. ”
“I thank you for the vision and I hope that this idea will spread to all higher education institutions”, he concludes.
The minister also adds the importance of a project that is financed by P.PORTO's own revenues. “The IES have the autonomy to manage and generate revenues and it is very gratifying to see that part of these revenues are for projects of public interest. P.PRAÇA is particularly important and must be recognized as such. ”
Also, the President of CM de Matosinhos welcomes this latest initiative by the Polytechnic of Porto, “a symbolic act at a difficult time”, asserting the solid link between the municipality and the institution to “think the future together”.
