Next year, an electronic signature will be required to apply for a meal grant in Barcelona

BarcelonaUntil now, families who needed to access aid to cover the cost of school meals in Barcelona could fill out an application and hand it in in person at the school or institute where their child is enrolled. Now, however, the Education Consortium has modified this procedure and in order to apply for the school meal grant in the Catalan capital, it will be mandatory to have an electronic signature such as the IdCAT or the Cl@ve PIN.

This change should facilitate the process, since in order to request the aid, families will no longer need to print and manually fill out the application and hand it in to the center. In the same way, the school or institute will not have to manage the paperwork either. In light of this change, the Barcelona Education Consortium has already sent a circular to the centres recommending that families register for idCAT Mòbil during the coming months of March and April so that when the period for requesting aid opens – they estimate that it will be in May or June – everyone will already be registered and the process will be "faster and more agile".

However, several entities and family associations warn that this new system "can put off" many vulnerable families when requesting aid. "The fact that having an electronic signature is an essential requirement can be a problem," warns Lidón Gasull, director of the Federated Associations of Families of Pupils of Catalonia (AFFAC). Gasull insists that there are already many vulnerable families who do not access the meal grant despite needing it due to problems with bureaucracy.

The Federation of Entities for the Care and Education of Children and Adolescents (FEDAIA) is also concerned. "We value positively the desire to improve efficiency in the procedures, but it is true that families who are in a situation of social exclusion or poverty often have difficulties with the gap and digital illiteracy and, therefore, may have problems carrying out this procedure," warns Sònia Martínez, director of FEDAIA. Martínez adds that many families at risk of poverty do not have a mobile phone or a computer and do not speak the language, and therefore may have problems asking for help to cover the cost of the canteen. "It is true that families need to be provided with sufficient tools to enable them to be autonomous, but also with the resources and support necessary to achieve this," he adds.

Given this option, the Education Consortium has prepared various resources to help families access this resource, such as tutorial videos in Catalan, but subtitled in Spanish, English, Russian and Arabic. A tutorial has also been published on how to register for idCAT Mobile – the easiest digital signature to obtain – and from April, face-to-face assistance can be requested for anyone who needs help at the Barcelona Education Consortium's Assistance Office (Plaza Urquinaona, 6) or at the Municipal School Offices. In addition, sources from the Consorci explain that support is already being provided to register for the mobile idCAT for families who need it.

In this sense, the Casal d'Infants, one of the entities that most supports families in vulnerable situations, asks for calm. "We have accompanied many parents to carry out this type of management and a large part of the families are already registered in the IdCAT to manage other aid, such as extracurricular activities," explains Marc Pascual, head of the Community Technology Space-Punto Òmnia in the Raval. From there, among other things, work is being done to help vulnerable families to break the digital divide.

One of the most expensive dining rooms in the State

In Catalonia more than 412,000 children under the age of sixteen are at risk of poverty, the equivalent of 34.8% of the total population of that age group. However, currently the cost of staying to eat at a Catalan school or institute is one of the most expensive in the State, according to the NGO Educo. In fact, while waiting to know what the price will be for the next academic year, at this point staying to eat at school has a maximum price of 7.25 euros, an amount that has increased for three consecutive years, after being frozen for more than ten years. Thus, currently staying to eat at school for the entire academic year is 60 euros more expensive than last year.

However, it must be taken into account that last academic year in the whole of Catalonia the Department of Education awarded 182,050 canteen grants (15,000 more than the previous year) and allocated 189 million euros. In the context of these grants, the number of scholarships covering 100% of this cost was tripled and up to 108,870 students had the cost of their school meals covered.