The Government will allocate 50 million euros to direct aid to families with children in primary school. Thus, the parents will receive a check for 100 euros to buy school supplies, regardless of whether the center where the student attends school is public or private. This aid does not discriminate against the level of household income.
The Government’s initiative leaves it unclear whether parents will continue to pay the schools the fee they pay in terms of books, school supplies and consumable accessories. This quota is widespread in the education system. According to the Department of Education, the check does not cancel the payment that schools claim from parents.
The aim of this measure, as announced by the Government spokeswoman after the Executive meeting, is to mitigate the increase in prices experienced by the increase in the cost of living, and to contribute to “creating a economic and social shield” against inflation.
The beneficiaries are half a million students who next year will be enrolled in the six primary years, that is to say, from the students who are currently in P5 and will start 1st primary in September, to those in 5th, who will start 6th.
The aid will be articulated through a system of vouchers, 100 euros per child, which can be exchanged in Catalan shops for books, dictionaries, stationery, writing materials, calculators, backpacks and educational games until November 30, 2023. vouchers will be distributed by post during the summer months so that the material can be purchased before September.
Businesses interested in participating will have to adhere to a platform and present a declaration of responsibility by which they undertake to redeem the vouchers for the defined school supplies.
According to the main association of families in public schools, Affac, the measure is “electoralist” because it is the Government’s obligation to guarantee free admission for children from 3 to 16 years old. And it shows an “enormous ignorance” about the functioning of the educational system whose centers already charge families for these materials. “If what they want is to reduce spending, what they should do is increase the operating budget in schools to ensure that no one pays fees, which are prohibited, for a concept that should already be free”, insisted Lidón Gasull, director of the Affac.
Precisely this association analyzed the average fee paid by families in terms of school supplies, and in 2019 it ranged between 88 and 105 euros, not including school trips.
Mar Pla, president of the association of families of Christian schools, indicated that many schools already organize materials and books through the afes, something that is not foreseen in the measure. He positively values ​​the fact that the measure includes students from the concerted school.
For its part, the Fapel amps federation considers that this measure should be extended to ESO and that it should be extended to electronic devices. “Educación considers that all 4th grade ESO students have a computer,” says Josep M. Prats, president of the entity. And he explains that in the instructions for the basic skills exams that will be held this week, the student is asked to view the statements on their own computer, even if they answer on paper. “In this case, each student must have a computer, something that has not been guaranteed in the concerted one”, unlike the public one, in which there was a distribution to all the students. “In the event that it is projected for everyone at the same time, there is a clear inequity for those who go to a different pace”, indicates Prats.
The material check is a three-way Government action. On the one hand, the Department of Economy has participated, which will control the management process, and, on the other, the Department of Education, which will manage the list of beneficiaries and design the vouchers. Finally, the Presidency will take care of the dissemination campaigns.
