The teachers' strike begins a few hours before the PISA test results

This Tuesday, teachers are starting a new day of mobilizations throughout Catalonia, coinciding with a key day for the sector: the first day of this 2026/27 school year. USTEC —the majority union— and the CGT met on Thursday, September 3rd, with the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, but, upon leaving the meeting, they confirmed that no agreement had been reached. "They haven't made a scheduling proposal for these meetings where we can negotiate [...], therefore, we invite the entire collective to join the strike," assured the spokesperson for USTEC, Iolanda Segura.

Thus, all teaching and support staff in educational centers in Catalonia are called to the strike, and among the teachers' demands, they are asking for educational funding to be increased to 6% of GDP, for more professionals to be incorporated to serve inclusive education, and for a reduction in student-to-teacher ratios. They also ask to protect Catalan as a vehicular and welcoming language in classrooms, and to adapt educational centers to climate change and high temperatures, among others.

However, the strike will take place with the PISA tests as a backdrop, since this same Tuesday the results will also be released following the "technical error" that will prevent this year's results for Catalonia from being comparable with those of the rest of the analyzed territories. In fact, the error will also not allow for observing whether the educational policies promoted since 2022 have worked.

Call to end the strikes

Various political representatives of the Generalitat government have asked teachers to stop the strikes. On the eve of the start-of-school educational strike, Salvador Illa asked the striking unions for a "parenthesis". It is, in fact, the same demand made by the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, who has proposed calling off the strike in order to move forward "with serenity and a constructive spirit".

In this vein, Niubó has also assured that her department has placed on the unions' table "a work agenda" to address issues and to "maintain a fluid dialogue throughout the year", and she has insisted that she shares with the unions "their demands to achieve the best public education for the country's students".

Furthermore, Illa also announced this Monday that in the coming weeks a plan will be proposed to air-condition all schools in Catalonia. "We will explain to the public where we stand and what we will do to resolve the situation", he said.

Educational reinforcements

The Government will face the start of the school year with a reinforcement of the staff of 1,830 positions —1,103 teachers and 500 new reception classroom positions—. Thus, the public education system in Catalonia will have a total of 94,422 education professionals, made up of 85,052 teachers, 4,564 educational support staff positions, and 4,806 administration and service staff positions.