You warn that it is "complicated" that there is no strike on the first day of the school year

BarcelonaOfficially and according to the school calendar, the 2026-2027 school year in Catalan schools and institutes begins on Tuesday, September 8. However, the teacher unrest of recent months may mean that classes do not start normally this year. This Monday, the spokesperson for Ustec, Iolanda Segura, stated in declarations to RAC1 that it is "complicated" that the strike planned for the first day of school is called off, and denounced that there is no negotiation with the department. "We had a meeting with the [Education] counselor at the beginning of July and we haven't heard anything since then," she told RAC1.

Segura pointed out that calling off the strike is "complicated" due to the "little margin of time" and because the issue is "of great importance." "It is very difficult to rectify it before the 8th [of September], but it is important that we start sitting down to negotiate and move forward on all fronts," said the spokesperson, regarding the agreement with CCOO and UGT and the one that was closed at the end of the school year, which Ustec finally did not adhere to because it was rejected in a consultation with teachers.

With this scenario, 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 the teaching community rejected the pre-agreement between the Department of Education and most of the sector's unions at the beginning of Junerejected the pre-agreement between the Department of Education and most of the sector's unions –including Ustec, which is the majority one–, the mobilization calendar was reactivated. The unions held 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 begin 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 going in the same direction and on July 7 announced that they will go on strike on the first day of the course. 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 of 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, councilor Esther Niubó defended the right to education of children in the face of the teachers' desire to go on strike on the first day of the school year, a day she described as "sensitive".

And next year, when will the course start?

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.