Like every September, we have an educational debate focused on what happens in the classrooms. And this year, even more so. A strike on the first day of school demanding more resources and support for inclusive education. PISA results marked by the scandal of the sample. But we often forget that a significant part of educational inequality is built outside of school hours. In the summer, in the afternoons, and on weekends. Some children accumulate activities, experiences, and connections; others, much less. And this difference also educates.Outside the classroom there is an opportunity that we are not yet taking full advantage of. Last July, Parliament unanimously approved urging the Government to guarantee a minimum of two weeks of educational leisure activities in the summer, with priority for children in the most vulnerable situations. A demand that a broad coalition of social, educational, and health organizations has been calling for for a long time. And the starting point is very unequal: the difference in participation in extracurricular activities approaches 40 percentage points depending on the mother's level of education.This very summer, Ivàlua published an evidence review on what works in educational leisure to combat child poverty. The results show that educational leisure can improve performance, social behavior, and children's self-confidence. We know, therefore, that it is worth guaranteeing. The question, then, is no longer whether it should be done, but how to ensure it really works.However, guaranteeing leisure does not only mean financing it. It is common to understand access as a matter of price: if the activity is free or there is a scholarship, the problem is solved. But we know that financial aid alone does not guarantee that children will participate. Because price is only one of the barriers. There is also information—knowing that the activity exists and that you have a right to it—, the procedures to apply for it, the offer available in your neighborhood or town, and family schedules. Not being able to pay is not the only way to be left out; there is also not being able to get there.But getting there is not everything either. Not every activity educates in the same way. Research shows that occupying a few hours is not enough: activities designed with educational intentionality, prepared teams, and stable bonds are needed. And continuity matters: results are more consistent when children participate in them on a regular and sustained basis. A spot is not yet an educational opportunity.Recognizing a right is a first step, but what matters most is that it can be exercised. And this also means avoiding the creation of a separate circuit for children with fewer resources. It is possible to prioritize who receives aid without separating where they participate. Catalonia can guarantee two weeks of leisure time and consider the job done, or ensure that it reaches exactly the children who are currently left out and that leisure ceases to be yet another source of inequality.

A high-mountain journey as a routine gesture to get to school. In isolated indigenous communities, the right to education is measured in kilometers of mud, rivers without safe crossings, and paths with dangerous terrain. Meanwhile, classrooms endure in precarious conditions, sustained by teachers who multiply resources where public investment arrives late or only halfway, and families convinced that taking their children to school is both a right and an obligation. Every day is an epic, a reflection of a structural gap: the physical distance between remote areas and opportunities. What real options do children have when the first obstacle is the environment itself? This photo essay focuses on the determination of the families and the slowness of the solutions that puts the children of the Ngäbe-Buglé comarca, in western Panama, near the border with Costa Rica, at risk.

The child protection system has registered 1,478 unaccompanied migrant children in Ceuta, but it is estimated that around 1,200 more are still waiting to be identified. The head of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego, indicated this Monday that the transfer of minors to the Peninsula is "essential" because the city "cannot be left alone," having exceeded its reception capacity. In a appearance before Congress to report on the Spanish government's management to resolve the migratory crisis, the minister was clear in defending the "higher interest" of minors as a "democratic conquest" that distinguishes "the rule of law from an autocracy" in the face of increasingly numerous positions of those who demand setting aside the law and expelling migrants, both adults and minors. a "democratic conquest" that distinguishes "the rule of law from an autocracy" in the face of increasingly numerous positions of those who demand setting aside the law and expelling migrants, both adults and minors.

The Spanish government has assured that the safe return of Moroccan minors who entered irregularly into Ceuta on July 30 is a priority. However, with the law in hand, the repatriation of young people has special protection compared to the ordinary procedures applied to adults. In fact, in recent years, returns with biological families are the absolute exception and only occur in specific cases. Furthermore, according to the prosecution, none have been processed to Morocco "due to the lack of cooperation" from the Alawite authorities. Not going any further, in 2024 only eight children were repatriated: four from Colombia, three from Romania, and one from France.

When Gayatri Spivak published her seminal text Can the subordinates speak? (recently translated into Catalan by Mariona Lladonosa, for Manifest Llibres, and into Spanish by Manuel Asensi, for Macba editions), her intention was to denounce that the word of the people that this decolonial theorist called subalterns was not escorted. Therefore, the question was ironic: of course the subordinates can speak (the French translation feminizes them), but their word is inaudible to the privileged.

The Barnahus, the comprehensive care service for children who have suffered sexual assault, will be opened to other types of violence to prevent them from having to go to police stations, health centers, and courts to repeat what happened to them. The model, which already has 14 centers open throughout Catalonia, has represented a radical change in traditional practices because children are in a comfortable environment, safe spaces where police officers and legal professionals carry out all the tests that will be used in case of a trial, without the need for them to testify again. The announcement was made by Teresa Llorens, Secretary of Life Cycles and Citizenship of the Generalitat, who also announced that the figure of the child advocate will be created, a reference professional to care for children under guardianship who live in a center.

This week we have good news that reaffirms and expands the guarantee of rights for children and adolescents. The expansion of LOPIVI (law for the Integral Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence) has been approved, which will require the listening —the testimony— of children and adolescents in judicial and administrative processes where children and adolescents are involved, regardless of their age.One of the central issues of this expansion is the absolute prohibition of using the concept of parental alienation syndrome (PAS) in judicial proceedings. PAS is a fabricated false syndrome that describes the supposed manipulation that mothers practice with their children with the aim of turning them against their fathers in cases where the fathers have exercised violence against them or their mothers. In short, the use of this false syndrome by the judicial system has served to delegitimize the testimonies of boys and girls who declared that they did not want to be with their fathers due to the harm this situation caused them. Despite the repeated warnings from various professional bodies —especially psychology— about the lack of scientific rigor and gender perspective of this concept, as well as recommendations not to take it into account in the judicial system, the use of PAS and the lack of listening to children in violence proceedings has continued to be a common practice both in Catalonia and in Spain until today.This situation, denounced by dozens of organizations that address sexist violence and by the protective mothers, has persistently and systematically violated the rights of children and adolescents. As we said, this legislative modification will be a great step forward that will curb the existence of these practices; at the same time, it makes us realize —once again— that the judicial system cannot be at the mercy of the ideology of the professionals who embody it. The supposed objectivity of the judiciary is called into question when it becomes evident that sentences are tinged with political convictions and a social model that on many occasions do not respond to the complexity or advances of current society. The times when the family was understood as a patriarchal hierarchy where children could not contradict their parents and were not given credibility, when the man was the head of the familyand had the final word on what happened within the family institution. In short, the children were a Social advances —and, therefore, legislative ones— must always be in line with guaranteeing freedoms and rights for all people without limitation of age or situation. Laws must always be aimed at protecting the most vulnerable. Let us, therefore, congratulate ourselves because social demands regarding childhood are beginning to be heard.

It took three years for the courts to recognize that Gambian Saynei Kanteh was indeed a minor, after the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office ruled that he was over eighteen and therefore no longer entitled to public protection. He was immediately removed from the guardianship of the Directorate General for Child Welfare (DGAIA, now the DGPPIA) and expelled from the center where he lived. "I knew he wasn't lying, that I was seventeen, and I trusted that sooner or later..." I would have the papers"," he states.

A couple—she Australian, he English—decided to make a radical life change and settled in Italy, in a house in the woods where they lived with the bare necessities and raised their children in a way that was unconventional for most. Now, the Italian courts have decided to remove their custody of the children, alleging that the children—six-year-old twins and an eight-year-old girl—are not in school, lack basic services, and live in isolation. The children are in a foster care center while they await a judge's final decision on what is best for them. family It has been shown, with data from the Italian Ministry of Education, that a teacher continues her education at home and that her children play with other boys and girls in the area. They use solar panels for energy and draw drinking water from a well. The children show no signs of abuse. They don't have cell phones or television. They are not vaccinated. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but what exactly is being judged?

The decision of a Judge in Navarre to dismiss case concerning the alleged sale of a 14-year-old girl The case of a girl being forced to marry a 21-year-old man from Mollerussa has shocked child protection organizations. They warn that child marriage is more common than it might seem at first glance, but that it often remains behind closed doors, leaving the child completely unprotected. Victims are often faced with the dilemma of reporting their parents and taking matters into their own hands, or accepting the arrangement to avoid further problems.

As she enters adolescence, Amina S. dreams of being able to enter the academy and earn a place in the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) or the Local Police. Before that, however, she will have to obtain her papers and even acquire Spanish nationality. For now, at 17, after four years in Catalonia, she is waiting for her case to be resolved, once her father has regularized his status and can begin the process of obtaining family roots for his two children, while her mother must follow a separate procedure. "Not having papers makes you feel different, because you so often feel like there's an invasion of illegal immigrants!" says this young woman, who only thinks "about the future" and has never been able to return to her country of origin, not even when a grandmother died. "We wouldn't have been able to go back," she notes.

With motherhood, Maia felt a "restlessness" about filling the biographical void that spans from conception to birth. Once in this world, her personal story was told by the family who, 46 years ago, came to the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital as a newborn and officially adopted her. From the very beginning, her adoptive mother explained to her—without prejudice—that another woman had taken him to her belly but for some reason he didn't keep her.

These days, families are searching and considering offers from administrations and organizations to fill part of their little ones' summer vacation with activities and leisure activities. Prices vary widely, depending on the days and hours of attendance, whether the child spends the night away, and the type of activity. Prices range from approximately €100 for a week of eight-hour summer camps to €300 or €400 for five or six days of summer camps. However, these are the prices for activities for children who don't need any specialized support. In contrast, for children with significant disabilities, the rates soar, even multiplying by two.

The Spanish government is giving itself more days for the autonomous communities to refine the data they have submitted on the available places for migrant minors without family members. The deadline for the regional governments to submit their data for redistribution of the 6,000 children currently in overcrowded centers in the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla passed at midnight this evening. They must be relocated throughout the Peninsula based, for example, on each territory's prior reception efforts. Only Aragon has refused to provide its data, while the Community of Madrid has provided the central government with the total number of minors cared for by the system during the past year, instead of providing the data that would provide a snapshot of the current situation. According to the agreement between Junts and the PSOE, Catalonia will have to take in between 20 and 30 of these minors. Because it is one of the regions that serves the most, specifically 2,242, according to the data that the Ministry of Social Rights has submitted to the ministry.