The day after it became known that the start of school would be delayed to the second week of September, a date requested by practically the entire educational community, but questioned by families, the Official Journal of the Generalitat published the resolution on the price of school canteen, which increases by 5% compared to the previous year. Education transfers to families the inflation of food and the increase in the cost of the monitor service. The main association of families, Associacions Federades de Famílies d’Alumnes de Catalunya (aFFaC), has been upset by both issues.
Education sets a maximum price of 7.25 euros per menu per day for the 2024-2025 school year (an increase compared to 6.91 euros this year). In the case of occasional diners, it goes from 7.60 to a maximum of 7.98 euros. This is the fifth year in a row that prices have risen, having remained frozen for more than ten years.
Ministry sources explained yesterday that they would be unviable if they did not become more expensive and “automatically” the quality would be lowered. On the one hand, the prices of food have increased and, on the other, the salary of the monitors whose service is included in the price of the canteen. “The Administration cannot favor the precariousness of a labor sector as weak as that of monitors, which has achieved a 3.5% increase in the labor agreement”.
Food inflation due to international conflicts has also had an influence. The increase in prices aims to “ensure the quality of the midday meal, with organic, local food, with flexibility for the different types of menus required by families”, they explain to Educación.
Prices refer to 2.5 hour dining spaces. For those with less than 2 hours (food and activities), the limit is 6.87 euros for regular students and 7.56 for occasional students.
The aFFaC has shown an initial opposition and is preparing an answer for the next few days. In what has been manifested at length is the delay to the second week of September in the school calendar, announced on Thursday by councilor Anna Simó.
According to the president of this association, Belén Tascón, the decision to advance the course to the first week of September taken “unilaterally” two years ago was made for “pedagogical criteria”, to attend to the most vulnerable students, and , on the other hand, now these criteria no longer count and the “logistical” criteria have more value, the need to give schools time to prepare for the school year.
The aFFaC asks Education “to be consistent”, to maintain the progress of the course in the first week and to work with planning so that “teachers, families and students experience the start of the year without anxiety”. For Tascón, it is incomprehensible that countries with similar characteristics can achieve this.
Another family association, Fapel, more in the minority, but with a presence in charter schools, considers that it is more important that the course is well prepared and if the directors and teachers have expressed the need to have five days to prepare the course, as they have done in the Education Council, it seems right to them.
