Will there be a strike at the beginning of the school year?
Educational assemblies and unions assure that classes will not begin "normally"
BarcelonaOfficially and according to the school calendar, the 2026-2027 academic year in Catalan schools and institutes begins on Tuesday, September 8. However, teacher discontent in recent months may mean that classes do not start normally on this September 8. Let's review everything you need to know about the start of this school year.
Will there be a teachers' strike on the first day of school?
After at the beginning of June the teaching community rejected the pre-agreement between the Department of Education and the majority of sector unions –including USTEC, which is the majority–, the calendar of mobilizations was reactivated. The unions conducted new consultations with teachers to find out what they were asking for and in what direction they wanted the protests to continue, and finally, at the beginning of July, they warned that "the school year would not start normally". In fact, USTEC has already announced that it will call a strike for September 8.
Educational assemblies – under the umbrella of the Catalan Educational Assembly (AEC) –, which have gained a lot of strength in recent months of protests, are following the same line and on July 7 announced that they will go on strike on the first day of the school year. Although the AEC alone does not have the power to call a strike, at the meeting where the decision to strike was made, there were also representatives from USTEC, CGT, Intersindical, CNT, and COS, unions that can indeed call the stoppage.
What will the mobilizations on September 8 be like?
Although it is already taken for granted that the course will not start normally, the unions have not yet made public the details of the mobilizations they will organize for September 8. From the Department of Education, in mid-July, counselor Esther Niubó defended the right to education of children in the face of the teachers' will to go on strike on the first day of the school year, a day she described as "sensitive".
And next year, on what day will the course begin?
After years of shifting dates and controversies, the Department of Education decided at the beginning of this 2026 that, for at least the next three academic years, classes will always start on September 8.