The Government of Catalonia has quadrupled 100% dining aid for vulnerable students for this 2023-2024 academic year. This is what the Minister of Education, Anna Simó, explained in a speech to the Parliament's Education Commission. The increase is due to the application of a new threshold for the granting of these scholarships that has been agreed with regional councils and municipal entities. It will mean that the 56,000 grants that were granted for 70% of the service will now be 100% of the cost. Simó has also indicated that the detection of students with Specific Educational Support Needs (NESE) has almost tripled in the last two years, going from 7% to 24%. In addition, she announced that 72.2% of the school vouchers have already been used. In addition, she has detailed that this year the new violence protocol will come into operation.
In an appearance to detail the start of the course, Simó explained that the new threshold for granting school meal aid means "more support for vulnerable students." This modification of the thresholds means that, for the first time, more 100% aid has been granted than partial aid, and that 76% of the aid requested is ultimately granted. Likewise, this measure corrects the impact of the increase in the price of the school cafeteria service on the most vulnerable families.
The counselor has highlighted the importance of early detection of those students who have special needs and explained that this 2023-2024 academic year the percentage of children with Specific Educational Support Needs (NESE) counted has risen to 24%. This figure represents almost triple the 2021-2022 academic year, the first in which the new admission decree and the plan against school segregation began to be applied. "This early detection is what must be guaranteed to achieve a balanced distribution of students and thus reduce the dissimilarity rates so that the number of NESE students is distributed," she detailed. In the current academic year, 27,000 students with socioeconomic needs have been detected, 6,000 more than the previous year.
This same year, the new Violence Protocol will also come into operation, which will unify the different existing ones. Simó has indicated that training sessions have already begun for emotional well-being representatives who this year will begin to work in schools and institutes within the framework of the new protocol against violence. Regarding the new Registry of Violence against Students (REVA) to combat harassment, he stressed that the objective is not to add "a new bureaucratic process" for the centers, but rather to "reduce the pressure" that they have and simplify the process.
Regarding sexual education, the head of Education has detailed that the Ministry is working transversally with other departments so that this issue has a presence in schools and institutes from early childhood. “Comprehensive sexual education is a tool to make informed decisions about one's own body and to generate a positive relationship based on respect and equality with the other.
The councilor has also referred to the school vouchers that the Government promoted to help families meet the cost of school supplies and explained that according to data from the Department of Economy, 90.8% of these have already been activated. 72.2% of them have already been used.
