2025/26 school year: fewer students in classrooms but more with specific support needs

The 2025/26 school year will begin next Monday, September 8, with fewer students in classrooms but more with specific educational support needs in the education system.

According to the Minister for Education, Esther Niubó, there will be 8,964 more students with these needs in the system.

In total, the last academic year ended with 335,746 students with specific support needs, almost 9,000 more than the previous year.

Of the total, 292,380 had needs for socioeconomic or sociocultural reasons, and 43,366 had needs for disorders or disabilities.

The forecast for the upcoming academic year there will be 1,326,352 students from kindergarten to vocational training, which would be 8,493 fewer than those enrolled last academic year.

Niubó highlighted that the reality in Catalan schools is "more complex" than in previous years, which is why authorities focused on these students.

Some measures to improve child care include investing more in assistant teachers and offering psychologists to specific locations.

Most of the classes for children aged 3 will have 20 or fewer students, and 97% of the 1,898 classes for children aged 13 (first level of secondary school ESO) will have 30 or fewer students.

One of the goals of the 2025/26 school year is to improve students' grades, and to do so, they will continue to implement pilot schemes across the territory. 

No mobile phones

The new academic year will be the first one with a ban on phones and smartwatches in schools, after approving the regulation back in June.

The new ban removes this exception, forbidding cell phone use entirely for students up to age 16.

The ban applies to all primary and secondary schools.

However, its impact on institutions combining secondary (ages 12-16) and high school (ages 16-18) levels is still unclear.

Families will receive a document with recommendations on using phones and digital devices during the academic year.