Some 1.3m students in Catalonia go back to school

For the many parents in Catalonia who have been counting down the days until their children's summer holidays came to an end (82 days in all), the long wait is finally over as almost 1.3 million youngsters started or went back to school.

Specifically, almost 50,000 children began infant school (3-6 years), with 209,000 in primary education (6-12), and over 800,000 starting or continuing their secondary education (12-16). Another 93,000 will do the Baccalaureate (16-18).

That is a lot of students and a lot of classes, and to cope with it all, for the 2019-2020 school year there are an extra 670 teachers, taking the total teaching staff in Catalonia to 72,535. There are also 33 new schools, with work carried out over the summer on 413 centers.

End of long holiday

While many children will have spent the summer honing their sandcastle building skills on the beach or perfecting their dive-bombing technique at the swimming pool, it is now time for them to put away their flip-flops and get out their textbooks.

In fact, one of the objectives of the new school year is improving students' speaking skills. A new project that was tested on fourth level secondary school students last year aims to promote and improve oral competency among schoolgoers.

Also this year, 3rd and 4th level secondary school students (14-16) will have to do community service, a project that is already up and running in 65% of schools and that the education department says will improve social skills and citizen awareness.

With a total of 1,581,534 students due back in the classroom, those doing vocational courses, adults courses or signed up in one of Catalonia's official language schools can still enjoy the fine weather as they start some time before the September 26 deadline.