The third building on the grounds of the old Fish Market will be dedicated to research to diagnose and, above all, find solutions to society's challenges. ThThe rector of Pompeu has insisted that the new project is presented as a do tank

The Government "is working" so that the first salary increase for teachers contemplated in the agreement between UGT and CCOO becomes a reality in May. Sources from the Department of Education confirm that they are working within these deadlines, but they avoid assuring whether it will finally be possible for teachers and professors to receive the 800 euros salary increase next month, which would correspond to the 30% increase in the agreed specific complement. The salary increase is one of the points of the agreement that the department led by Esther Niubó signed a few weeks ago with the two unions, but without the support of USTEC, the majority union in the Catalan education sector.

New chapter in the tug-of-war between teachers and the Government. This Tuesday, the majority union in the education sector, Ustec, has made public the results of the survey it sent to all teachers and professors, asking what the next steps should be to mobilize against the agreement signed between the Government, CCOO, and UGT, and without the approval of Ustec, Profesores de Secundaria, CGT, and La Intersindical. In this survey —also promoted by CGT and La Intersindical—, which was sent to all teachers' emails, three questions were asked: if they are willing to have "more strikes", how many days of strike they would have – with options ranging from one day to more than ten – and what type of strike they would prefer. The survey was answered by 31,600 teachers, and of these, 90% have stated that they "commit" to continue striking. That is, about 28,000 teachers are in favor of continuing to mobilize.

One month after the Government signed an improvement in conditions for teachers and the situation in classrooms with CCOO and UGT – but not with the rest of the unions or with USTEC, which is the majority – the agreement continues to cause repercussions. This Tuesday USTEC sent all teachers a new email to ask again if it is necessary to continue with the mobilizations. Just as the union did in the last strikes that achieved massive support, USTEC has decided to leave the next steps in the hands of the collective. In this way, they ask teachers three questions: if they are willing to go on "more strikes", how many days of strike they would go on – with options between one day and more than 10 – and what type of strike they would prefer.

Consecutive strike calls, follow-ups of more than 30%, teacher closures in institutes, massive demonstrations and even some resignations. But, also, several agreements and pre-agreements. This is the scenario that the education sector in Spain has experienced in the last year. In fact, since the beginning of the school year, up to twelve autonomous communities have registered some teacher strike call, with more or less adherence. The last one was this very week in Madrid, where early childhood education teachers have called an indefinite strike that has already lasted four days.

"I am well and recovered," stated the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, this Thursday, in her first words after returning to work following a leave of absence. A medical leave that lasted two months and for which Niubó has now explained the reason. "I hadn't said it until now, but it was cancer, a thymic cancer, which is a gland located between the lung and the heart," the minister detailed in an interview with SER Catalunya, where she also said she hadn't made it public to protect her family and prevent them from suffering. Now, however, she states: "I feel a bit obligated to explain it, because other people may be going through similar processes."

Even though it is the middle of the Easter school holidays, the Department of Education has not gone even two days without a figure in charge of the General Directorate of State-funded and Private Schools. After the then Director General of the area, Xavier Güell, presented his resignation "for personal reasons" this Monday, this Wednesday the Government has appointed Toni Aguilar as the new Director General of State-funded and Private Schools. this Monday the then Director General of the area, Xavier Güell, presented his resignation "for personal reasons", this Wednesday the Government has appointed Toni Aguilar as the new Director General of State-funded and Private Schools.

New change in the structure of the Department of Education. The until now Director General of Concerted and Private Schools of the Generalitat, Xavier Güell, has presented his resignation, as advanced by the Efe agency and confirmed by ARA. Sources from the Department of Education indicate that Güell has made this decision "for personal reasons". The resignation comes three weeks after the Government agreed to 390 million euros to address the "historic underfunding" of subsidized schools.

New blow from justice to Catalan in schools. This Monday, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has ordered the provisional execution of the ruling it issued last September, in which it annulled a dozen articles of the decree to protect Catalan in schools. A norm that Pere Aragonès's government approved in 2024 and that only a month later the courts suspended it, which is why it had never been applied. In fact, sources from the Department of Education have assured that Monday's ruling will not mean any change in the day-to-day of Catalan classrooms.

"That up to 21 years of educational trajectory are registered in a single application." This is one of the objectives sought by one of the Government's star tools for this legislature: the La Meva Educació application. The new app, which the Department of Education will launch at the beginning of summer 2027, has the same philosophy as the La Meva Salut app and will serve students, families, and teachers.

The agreement that the Government is going to to reach an agreement with CCOO and UGT regarding improvements to teachers' working conditions And the situation in classrooms continues to cause controversy. Specifically, the part of the agreement that aims to reduce the number of designated positions to 3% and drastically limit the cases in which a school principal can conduct an interview to choose which teacher will work at the school based on the educational project. This Wednesday, the Professional Association of Educational Managers (Axia) filed an appeal (an internal procedure within the Department of Education) against the March 3rd resolution—approved by the Government before signing the agreement with the unions—which defines how teacher assignments will be made and how teachers will be assigned to each school. This rejection has also been expressed by the assembly of principals of public schools in Barcelona. According to Axia, which represents up to 300 school principals, the resolution constitutes a "clear and unjustified violation" of the current legal framework. Furthermore, they assert that it represents a setback for the autonomy of educational institutions and accuse the Department of Education of imposing a "restrictive, arbitrary, and technically unfounded" interpretation of the regulations. "The agreement and the resolution regarding teaching assignments violate the Catalan Education Law (LEC), the decree on school autonomy, the decree on staffing, and the decree on school leadership," denounces Jordi Satorra, president of the association of school principals. Among the arguments Axia uses to urge the Government to rectify the situation is the fact that the resolution includes a "prohibition on proposing temporary staff"—when a principal proposes that a teacher already at the school, but on a temporary contract, be allowed to continue teaching the following year—and the "limitation of the role of school principals," since, according to the principals, limiting their capacity to manage teaching teams is detrimental. Axia also denounces that the changes in the allocation process will have a "direct impact on staff stability, with negative consequences for the quality of education." Furthermore, they assert that there is a "lack of motivation and technical coherence" in several aspects of the resolution. For all these reasons, the association demands the "immediate rectification of the resolution and its adaptation to the current legal framework" and, if necessary, the precautionary suspension of the regulation "to prevent harm to schools."

Dining chairs, mattresses of all sizes, old televisions, blankets, and clothes. All gone. In just over two hours, what had been going on for the last three months was home The area where people were evicted from the former Institut B9 has been completely emptied. The encampment, where dozens of people had gathered on Tuesday morning, was by midday back to being just a sidewalk under the C-31 bridge, with gleaming white bike lane lines and cobblestones shiny with cleaning product. "They told us we were leaving to clean it up, but I don't think we can come back," a young man repeated as he crossed the police tape with a rickety shopping cart in one hand and a suitcase overflowing with people in the other.

"These are competency-based tests, but it's very important to clarify that they are not tests of basic skills." This was the emphatic statement made this Monday by Núria Planas, director of the Agency for Evaluation and Foresight of Education – formerly the Higher Council for Evaluation – when speaking about the end-of-stage exams that some 4th-year ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education) students began taking this Monday. "These are not the tests from five or six years ago; these are end-of-stage tests that measure three levels of achievement," the mathematician insisted. Planas made these remarks from one of the 69 Catalan secondary schools – whose names will not be disclosed to protect anonymity – that are administering what were traditionally called basic skills tests this week. These tests will not only analyze students' basic knowledge, nor will they be administered in a standardized way. The exams will be taken by 5,700 students and will cover five subjects: Catalan, Spanish, English, mathematics, and science, technology, and engineering. "These are not tests that assess recalling facts or repeating routines or memorization techniques. They are tests that assess the ability to connect and extrapolate content to new and diverse situations," Planas explained. The tests, which premiered this Monday, include questions of basic, medium, and high difficulty levels. In fact, the Agency's director highlighted that "a considerable percentage, close to 20%, of the questions are cognitively demanding and designed to measure excellence." In this regard, Planas asserted that the basic competency tests did not include "items to assess the achievement of excellence." Results in the fall

Once the tests are completed, the evaluation agency will have six months to analyze the results. "We will conduct a mixed data analysis: quantitative and qualitative," Planas specified. In this regard, they have committed to having the results in the fall, not in the summer as was the case until now. "We will move very quickly because six months is a very short time. Keep in mind that PISA takes approximately a year, and the general system evaluation—a new national test—takes about 15 months," Planas explained. Regarding the reason why this year 6th-grade students are not taking the end-of-stage assessment, the Department of Education already explained that students finishing primary school will undergo the general system evaluations; these are new exams defined by the Spanish government that 6th-grade students in all regions must take, and which will also be sample-based (meaning not all schools will take them). In fact, from now on, since the state exams will be held every three years in the 6th grade of primary school and the 4th year of secondary school (ESO), the Catalan end-of-stage assessment will be combined with the state one. Specifically, there will be two years in which students finishing primary or secondary school will take the Catalan exams and one more year in which they will take the state exam. Both the Catalan and state exams will be administered using a sample test, meaning that not all schools and institutes will participate as before. Therefore, the test results will no longer be able to serve as a barometer for schools and families to gauge a student's performance. Planas justified this change by insisting that this information can be obtained from the diagnostic tests (the exams that all 4th grade primary and 2nd year ESO students will take) and assured that "the objective" of the end-of-stage assessment "is to capture a snapshot of the system, not of the school or the student." In this regard, he insisted that the quantity of data should not be confused with scientific evidence, and that with the new system there will be less data, but it will be comparable and can be transformed into scientific evidence. "It's not a matter of quantity but of quality," he concluded.

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Firefighters from the Generalitat (Catalan government) rescued the four minors trapped when the old Esparreguera Hospital collapsed in the Baix Llobregat region. The emergency call came in at 6:06 p.m., and within a short time, firefighters had rescued two of the teenagers inside the building. Two hours later, they were able to rescue the remaining two minors. The first two rescued minors were seriously injured and were taken to the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Esplugues with multiple fractures. The last two teenagers extracted from the building—who remained conscious and in contact with emergency services throughout the ordeal—were taken to the Martorell Hospital in stable condition.

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Bertrand Richet is a leading expert in School evaluation council, The French School Assessment Council. He was the Inspector General of the French Ministry of Education for almost a decade. His main task on the assessment council has been to design the new framework for evaluating schools and institutes. He is visiting Catalonia at the invitation of the Catalan Government through an Erasmus+ grant.

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"Either negotiation or resignation." This has been the main message repeated by the 35,000 teachers and professors – 100,000 according to the organizers – who demonstrated this Friday in Barcelona to show their rejection of the agreement that the Government signed with CCOO and UGT to improve teachers' working conditions and the situation in classrooms. Their refusal has resulted in what the unions have called a "total strike": almost half of the teachers (43.77%) have joined the strike – although the unions put this percentage as high as 85%. This figure is slightly higher than the participation reported by the Department of Education during the last strike the sector staged in Catalonia last February, when the final tally was 40.94%.

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On the fourth day of the teachers' strike and one day before the nationwide school closures, the government has insisted that improving the agreement signed with the CCOO and UGT unions—but not with Ustec, the largest teachers' union—is not on the table. The Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, reiterated this after approving a supplementary budget of €5,988.65 million, which will cover expenses once the budget is withdrawn to continue negotiations with the ERC party. Romero warned that "having more resources is very difficult without a budget" and also admitted that if the budget were approved, it would be "very complicated" to improve the agreement with the teachers because "it's a very, very large increase." "The government has made a very significant effort, and we should all be aware of that," she asserted.

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Actors made up as cats that resemble celebrities theriansFormula 1 cars, chocolate fountains, music booths where you can create your own song, and agents of all kinds in eye-catching uniforms. Entering Hall 2 of the Education Fair and not being entertained for a while is almost impossible, and perhaps all these attractions explain—in part—the change the educational guidance fair has undergone to reach its current state: this year, for the first time, there are more exhibitors of vocational training (FP).

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On the second day of the week of strikes in the education sector, the teachers' protest not only maintained its momentum but actually increased. This Tuesday, the strikes were called in the territorial services of Penedès, Tarragona, and Terres de l'Ebre, and according to the tally provided by the Department of Education, participation rose to 38.48%, six and a half points higher than Monday's strike in Barcelonès and Baix Llobregat (31%). However, the unions calling the mobilization (USTEC – the largest in the sector – Secondary School Teachers, CGT, and Intersindical) again reported a much higher number of professionals participating in the strike: they claim that 70% walked off the job on this second day of protest.

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"Quantum computers are in their infancy, but they are already beginning to pose a threat. Encrypted data can be captured today, and later, when we have a quantum computer, that information can be decrypted." Faced with this scenario, described by Enrique Sánchez, head of the European Union's Quantum Flagship (QCN) project, the Catalan government (Generalitat) wants to make things difficult for post-quantum hackers—that is, cybercriminals who, in the near—but unspecified—future, could use quantum technology to steal public data, such as information processed by the Palau de la Generalitat (the seat of the Catalan government). To this end, the government has proposed creating the Barcelona Quantum Ring, a pioneering network in Europe that will cost 8 million euros and will be protected against attacks that could be perpetrated using future quantum technologies. This system will include the Catalan government's main strategic centers, such as the headquarters of the Catalan Government, health services, security and emergency services, corporate data processing centers, Barcelona City Hall, and other research nodes. Broadly speaking, the initiative will consist of installing QKD (quantum key distribution) technology equipment on the existing communications network using mechanisms that, instead of relying solely on mathematical methods, utilize properties of light to generate and share keys between points in the network. According to the Catalan Government, this will allow for the detection of any interception attempt and the establishment of "communications with very high guarantees of confidentiality." The bidding process to find companies capable of installing this quantum key distribution network, which the Catalan Government expects will connect 12 nodes, was launched this Monday. The first four will be connected in 2027, and three of them are already confirmed to be the Palau de la Generalitat (the seat of the Catalan government), the Center for Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CTTI), and Egara, the central complex of the Mossos d'Esquadra (the Catalan police force) in Sabadell, where strategic command and the force's most specialized units are centralized. Later, the following are planned: the headquarters of the Catalan Tax Agency; the Mossos d'Esquadra police station in Les Corts – the Mossos' command center in Barcelona; CATNIX (Catalonia's neutral internet point for the entire Catalan government administration); Santa Madrona, which houses administrative services and cultural facilities; the Bonanova node, which houses the control infrastructure for the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) network; and the Cerdanyola point, where data processing centers used by the Catalan government are located. With all this, the goal is for the Barcelona Quantum Ring to be ready in 2029.

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