Tarragona starts the school year with 128,693 students: Sant Pau Apòstol, without teacher strike

128,693 students have started the 2026-2027 school year in the Tarragona and Ebre regions. At the Sant Pau Apòstol school in Tarragona, the return has come with nerves, emotion, reunions, and hugs after the summer months.

The subsidized school, with about 1,200 students, experiences a start of the school year marked by teacher protests and a new day of strike. No teacher at the school has supported it, but the families say they share the reasons behind the demands.

The return to classrooms begins with hugs and demands

For the families of Tarragona, the number measures a first day experienced very concretely: thousands of children and young people return to class while teachers keep the labor protest open.

How many students start the school year in Tarragona and the Ebre area?

A total of 128,693 students begin classes in the Tarragona and Ebre regions. The number includes primary, secondary, high school, and vocational training students.

The school year thus starts on a very broad territorial scale, but the first morning is visible in specific schools. At Sant Pau Apòstol, about 1,200 students have reunited with friends and teachers after the summer break.

• Primary
• Secondary
• High School
• Vocational training

The data places the return to classrooms as one of the major movements of the day in the district. And as often happens with large numbers, the reality ends up having a much smaller face: a backpack, a classroom, and a reunion.

How was the first day experienced at Sant Pau Apòstol?

At the Sant Pau Apòstol school in Tarragona, the arrival was marked by emotion, nerves, and hugs between students, friends, and teachers. The school resumed activity without any teacher supporting the strike.

For families, this meant starting the year normally within the school. However, the calm of the first morning does not erase the debate accompanying the start of the school year: the teachers’ mobilizations and their demands.

A school without strike, but with support for teachers' demands

The case of Sant Pau Apòstol shows the difference between not supporting a strike at the school and not sharing the reasons that motivated it. This distinction is the data that best explains the atmosphere of the first day.

Why do families support the demands?

The families at the school celebrate that their teachers do not strike but share the reasons for the teachers' mobilizations. Mireia Cram, mother of Laia, who this year starts kindergarten, expressed it this way: "We share the reasons for their mobilizations, although we are grateful to be at a school that we do not suffer these strikes so directly."

The phrase captures the paradox of the morning: families want classes to start without interruptions, but do not discredit the teachers' demands. In other words, gratitude for normality coexists with support for the protest.

What changes so that the strike does not happen at the school?

At Sant Pau Apòstol, no teacher supported the new day of strike, and classes started normally. This allows students to return to the classrooms without a stoppage at the school while the mobilizations continue to be part of the start of the school year.

The situation also explains why families speak of a lesser impact in their immediate environment, without denying the conflict affecting the entire teaching sector. Thus, the first day has two readings: the classroom opening and the ongoing demands.

The 2026-2027 school year begins in Tarragona and the Ebre regions with 128,693 students returning to classrooms. At Sant Pau Apòstol, the 1,200 students found the teachers in place and a school without a strike, but families made it clear that the normality of this morning does not mean ignoring the teachers' demands.

Source of the article: Mar Rovira / Arnau Martínez / Catalan News Agency