Education crisis - Strikes, PISA, and what comes next
Durada: 30 min
03/10/2026
Catalonia's education system is facing a turbulent start to the new school year, with teachers continuing to strike over pay, working conditions and investment in schools. In this episode of Filling the Sink, Lorcan Doherty and Cillian Shields look at the background to the long-running dispute between teachers' unions and the Catalan government, and hear from teachers and parents taking part in the latest mobilisations, as well as education officials responding to the strikes. We also look at Catalonia's controversial PISA results. A "technical incident" meant that almost a quarter of selected students were exempted from the tests, making the results invalid for comparison with previous years or other regions. And with further negotiations, a proposed increase in education spending and more mobilisations on the horizon, what happens next for Catalonia's education system?