Catalunya will invest 2.5 billion to climate-control all its public schools

The programme will not just involve installing air conditioning units. Each centre will require a different solution depending on its age, orientation, and condition: there will be work on climate control, but also improvements to enclosures and thermal insulation to prevent classrooms from reaching excessive temperatures when the heat arrives.

The first 100 centres will be addressed over the next two academic years. This initial phase will mobilise around 100 million euros, while the rest of the work will be rolled out progressively to cover the entire public network over a five-year period.

The problem has become especially apparent with the increase in episodes of high temperatures during September, May, and June, months when classrooms are in use. The Generalitat itself acknowledges that part of the educational infrastructure was not designed to cope with these situations and that there are accumulated shortcomings in insulation and thermal conditioning.

One in four educational centres in Catalonia was built before the 1960s. Many buildings were designed mainly to retain heat during winter, at a time when the hottest months largely coincided with school holidays. The rise in temperatures has now turned that configuration into a problem during part of the school year.

Emergency measures had already begun this summer. The Education department installed fans in 227 centres and plans to bring new ventilation systems to another 150 between the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2027. The new plan goes beyond these temporary measures and proposes structural interventions across the entire network.

The investment in education will be accompanied by another programme aimed at older people. The Govern will allocate 580 million euros to climate control in 51 public care homes, extending adaptation to heat to another type of facility where extreme temperatures can have a greater impact.

For Barcelona, the announcement adds to the measures already being carried out by the City Council in the city's schools, but this is a different programme: the 2.5 billion euros announced now come from the Generalitat and cover the whole of Catalonia. The specific centres included in the first phase will be identified as the Education department provides more details on the territorial rollout.

The ultimate goal is for temperature control to no longer depend on temporary solutions like portable fans or closing blinds when heatwaves occur. The first test will come with those initial 100 centres, before extending the reforms to the rest of the Catalan public network over the next five years.