Catalan government proposes working groups on 6% education funding target

Working groups on budget and school policy

President of the Generalitat Salvador Illa and Education Minister Esther Niubó met parliamentary leaders on Friday at the Palau de la Generalitat to address educational performance following recent PISA test results and labour disputes. All parliamentary groups attended the two-hour meeting except Vox. Following the talks, Niubó announced the establishment of two joint working groups with political parties. The first commission will study pathways to increase Catalan educational spending toward 6% of gross domestic product, while the second will coordinate parliamentary input with the broader review underway at the Catalan Education Council (CEC), led by its president Joan Manuel del Pozo.

Niubó noted that achieving the 6% spending target within a single legislative term remains difficult, presenting an intermediate goal of matching central Spanish state investment levels in education. The government also raised priorities including updates to inclusive schooling resources, teacher training, and plans to reduce digital screen usage in classrooms in favour of printed textbooks.

Parliamentary opposition demands firm commitments

Opposition parties accepted seats on the two working groups but criticized the summit for lacking concrete details, budgets, and binding timetables. Parliamentary leader of Junts Mònica Sales argued that holding political summits without direct teacher representation failed to establish an effective foundation for reform.

It was not a good starting point for generating a country-wide agreement to do so with our backs turned to the educational community.

Junts, Esquerra Republicana (ERC), and the People's Party (PPC) also reproached the regional executive for making unilateral public announcements, such as restricting artificial intelligence tools for students under 14 and reintroducing mandatory readings in Bachillerato, before presenting them to working groups. Comuns leader Jéssica Albiach called for classroom cooling measures, lower pupil-to-teacher ratios, and preservation of the Catalan linguistic immersion model, noting that a lower ratio directly benefits classroom management.

It allows for better handling of diversity and classroom complexity, more individualized attention, a better climate, a better atmosphere in class, and also better detection of problems and difficulties.

People's Party spokesperson Lorena Roldán stated her party would engage with initial working sessions but demanded educational model changes, including greater accommodation for Spanish-language learning. Meanwhile, CUP representative Pilar Castillejo demanded guarantees that expanded funding would halt the reduction of public school classes in favour of subsidized private institutions, while also objecting to the presence of Aliança Catalana at the summit.

Trade unions demand formal collective bargaining

Educational unions rejected the notion that political summits or council debates could replace direct labor negotiations. Ustec, the primary public education union in Catalonia, maintained its call for a dedicated framework table to negotiate reaching the 6% GDP target within four years, restricting those funds entirely to the public sector. Union spokesperson Iolanda Segura insisted that working conditions and staffing agreements must remain within the official Education Sector Table.

Ustec warned that without formal bargaining, concrete documentation, and budgetary commitments, unions will resume street demonstrations in late November. In parallel, secondary education union Professors de Secundària criticized their exclusion from the Catalan Education Council, demanding that future policy consultations focus primarily on practicing public school staff.