Crisis-hit Spain is to charge parents for sending their children to school with packed lunches. A daily fee of up to 3 euro ($3.5) will be introduced when the new term begins next month.

The charge - which reflects "the relative cost for the use of the dining room and the supervision that entails" - has been condemned as "barbaric" by parents.

Traditionally, Spanish children have eaten hot meals in the school canteen during a two-hour lunch break for a monthly fee paid by parents that averages about 4.50 euro ($5.2) a day.

The economic crisis has left Spain with a 25 per cent unemployment rate and many parents have opted to save money and send children to school with home-made lunches.

Until now, low-income families have been eligible for grants for school meals but austerity measures introduced by the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy have forced regional education boards to make stringent cuts to subsidies and impose the charges.