The Ministry of Education confirms that the school year will begin on September 8.

BarcelonaNow yes, a month and a half after proposing it to the unions, The Department of Education has confirmed that classes will begin next school year on September 8th. Specifically, preschool, primary, and secondary school students will return to classrooms on Monday the 8th, while high school and vocational training classes will begin after the National Day, on Friday, September 12th. However, sports, fine arts, and design courses will begin even later, on September 15th, and adult education centers and official language schools will begin on the 22nd. This was confirmed this Thursday by the regional minister, Esther Niubó, during a standing session with journalists in the Catalan Parliament.

As for the holidays, the school year will end on Friday, June 19th, when the summer holidays begin. At Christmas, schools and colleges will close between December 20 and January 7, and the Easter holidays will be between March 28 and April 6. In addition, educational centers will have four days of free use to choose from. With all this, the 2025-2026 academic year will have 177 school days, within the margin established by the Catalan education law, which establishes that a school year must have between 175 and 177 school days.

Although when the possible date was announced last February, hand in hand with the unions, the Government chose not to confirm it until it was formally communicated "to the unions and the board of directors of schools and colleges," Niubó had already made it clear, in An interview with ARA, that the intention was for the course to start before the DiadaThis Thursday, the regional minister asserted that September 8th is a "balanced" date because it guarantees "stability" with the current calendar and allows for good preparation for teachers and family reconciliation. Furthermore, Niubó defended that the chosen date has the "endorsement" of the Education Council.

Although the new date means starting the school year just one day earlier—this year, the starting signal for classes in Catalonia was Monday, September 9th—unions such as USTEC, CCOO, and ASPEPC have been warning for weeks that they disagree. "It was a calendar not agreed upon with the education community; it was not negotiated," criticized USTEC spokesperson Iolanda Segura, who insisted that they cannot "approve" this decision, since, in her opinion, "it represents a detriment to teachers' working conditions" because there will be no time to "prepare for the start."

Regarding families, the director of the Federated Associations of Families of Students of Catalonia (AFFAC) – which encompasses the majority of associations of families of public schools and institutes –, Lidón Gasull, defended that they value positively "that it has been decided to stabilize the date of the". However, they insist that now on the table is "the challenge of ensuring that the course begins with all the guarantees, which implies that all teachers must be at the center before the start of the course".

The appointments will be announced before

Precisely to achieve the families' demands, Niubó has also announced that teacher appointments will be brought forward so that schools have sufficient time to identify their staff and prepare for the school year. Last year, the previous government said that the appointments would be published during the first week of July, but a technical problem ultimately delayed this until mid-July. Now, the minister has stated that the department's intention is for the process to begin by the end of May and that the final appointments will be made by early July "at the latest."