Families without education and children facing poverty: can education break this spiral?
A report warns that the risk of suffering social exclusion is six times higher among children of people who only have basic education
BarcelonaOne of the main transmission channels of poverty is the low educational level of families. This is the thesis defended this Wednesday by experts from the Catalonia Children's Platform of the Third Social Sector Roundtable and the Bofill Foundation. The statement is not just a perception, but a reality that the data confirms: a boy or girl from a family without studies has six times greater risk of being poor than one with parents who have higher education.
The study Education overcomes poverty stresses that in Catalonia 34.8% of children and adolescents are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, which is the fourth highest figure in Europe, only behind countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, which do reach 40% of minors in this situation. In this sense, the authors of the report on Catalan scope insist that this reality has a direct relationship with the educational capital of families: while the risk of poverty is 13.3% for minors with parents with higher education, the percentage rises to 60% for children of people who have at most graduated from compulsory secondary education.
Taking into account this correlation between family educational level and risk of poverty, the Catalonian Childhood Platform and Bofill propose a series of measures to get to work and reverse – or try to – this trend. "Education and educational policies have the power to provide opportunities and neutralize inequality and social exclusion from childhood," they say in the report, which schedules possible solutions in time.
Universalization of early childhood education and scholarships in compulsory secondary education
The report insists that education for children from 0 to 3 years is "key to breaking the reproduction of poverty." For this reason, they suggest that, by 2030, it would be necessary to guarantee the universalization of this stage and achieve free childcare, at least for the most vulnerable families. "Despite its potential, Catalonia's scholarship policy is still clearly insufficient, especially in secondary education," they lament from Bofill.
The study shows that these grants only cover 22.2% of students, a figure still far from the proportion of Catalan children at risk of poverty or exclusion. In this sense, they propose salary grants for post-compulsory studies that complement those already granted by the Ministry of Education, and a grant for students in the 3rd and 4th year of compulsory secondary education of €3,000 per year. They also insist that all this must cover 100% of secondary school students at risk of poverty.
Accompaniment to equalize learning
The educational and social entities have explained that the guidance and support system for students in Catalonia is still incomplete, as it is "biased, not very preventive and very unequal between centres and territories". To address this, they urge a plan that includes 40 additional hours of guidance for students in secondary schools who are at risk of poverty. In addition, they also explain that participation should be encouraged. in extracurricular reinforcement activities through local educational support programs, and devise new policies to help young people who have dropped out of school re-engage with 7,000 new places in second-chance schools.
Fighting segregation
For years Catalonia has a problem with school segregation This has a direct impact on the loss of opportunities for the most vulnerable students. According to the report, to combat this, more organised schooling measures would be needed, since in compulsory secondary education, 37% of students with fewer economic resources and 43% of immigrant students would have to change schools to avoid segregation.
Finally, experts also insist on the barrier that the price of school meals can represent for the development of the most disadvantaged students. This year, staying to eat at Catalan schools costs 7.25 euros per day, one of the highest prices in the State. In this regard, the report warns that 180,000 new grants would be needed to cover the meal service for all students at risk of poverty and exclusion.
