The 8 September strike remains in place despite 1,830 education reinforcements

The Govern begins the school year with a workforce of 94,422 professionals, 1,830 more than at the start of last year. Of these, 1,103 are new teachers and lecturers and another 531 correspond to educational support staff, such as educators, social integration workers and specialists linked to inclusion.

One of the biggest reinforcements is focused on welcoming newly arrived pupils. Catalonia will have 2,141 welcome classrooms, around 500 more than at the end of the previous school year, and they will be limited to 18 pupils per teacher. There will also be 204 new places in special education centres, with an investment of €6.3 million.

For USTEC, however, these measures do not resolve the conflict that caused months of mobilisation during the last school year. The union argues that a large part of the announcements were already included in commitments negotiated earlier and calls for new proposals on reducing class sizes, inclusive education, infrastructure, climate control in schools, the closure of groups in public schools and education funding.

The organisation maintains the goal of reaching educational investment equivalent to 6% of GDP and also calls for Catalan to be strengthened as the language of instruction. On this last point, the data need to be clarified: the available studies do not show that only one in four pupils generally uses Catalan habitually. They do indicate, for example, that only around one in four sixth-year primary pupils always uses it when working with classmates in the classroom.

Teaching staff will also begin this school year with an annual improvement supplement of €700. That sum is added to the increase in the specific supplement for 2026, of just over €800 a year depending on the teaching body, which began to take effect in May. The pay agreement was backed by CCOO, UGT and ASPEPC-SPS, but has not ended the conflict with the unions that continue the protest.

USTEC complains that since 13 July there had been no effective negotiation with Education, and has even called for Salvador Illa to intervene personally if the Conselleria cannot unlock the conflict. CGT and Intersindical are also maintaining pressure ahead of the start of the school year.

Niubó announced this Monday that she will hold meetings with the unions during this week and specific meetings with the strike callers to try to find a way out before the 8th. The minister maintains that the situation has changed compared with the start of the previous school year because of the agreements reached and the increase in resources, but has acknowledged that a strike on the first day is not the start of the school year the Govern expected.

For Barcelona families, the timetable does not change for now: classes begin on Tuesday 8 September. What remains unknown is the scope the stoppage will have in schools, the minimum services the Generalitat establishes and, before that, whether this week's negotiations manage to alter a call that USTEC keeps active.

UPD: The Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, will meet separately this Thursday 3 September with USTEC and CGT, the two unions maintaining the strike call for the first day of the school year. USTEC acknowledges that calling a stoppage on 8 September entails risks, but considers it “difficult” to call it off at this stage and will attend the meeting seeking for the Generalitat to reopen negotiations on class sizes, inclusive schooling, staffing and funding. The meeting comes after Education said it had already carried out 96% of the measures planned for these dates in the agreements signed with CCOO, UGT and ASPEPC-SPS, a figure USTEC disputes. Less than a week before the return to classrooms, the strike therefore remains fully called, and Thursday's meeting will be the last significant attempt to unlock the conflict before the 8th.