Barcelona Bans Smartphones, Smartwatches in Schools Starting 2025/26

Catalan schools will enforce a complete ban on smartphones and smartwatches for students in compulsory education starting with the 2025/26 school year. The prohibition covers all classroom and school grounds use with no exceptions. This step comes as Barcelona readies for the academic year that begins on September 8 for kindergarten, primary and compulsory secondary levels.

Why the timing stands out

The policy arrives alongside a documented drop in student numbers and ongoing efforts to reduce school segregation. Forecasts show 1,040,925 students across Catalonia for the coming year, a decline of 12,013 from the prior year. Segregation indices in Barcelona fell from 0.49 to 0.39 in pre-school and primary education and from 0.44 to 0.34 in secondary education between 2020/21 and 2023/24. These changes occur while the city carries out 83 separate improvement, enlargement and renovation projects at schools during the summer break under a 95-measure package backed by more than €62 million.

Local programmes and next steps

Barcelona has already opened five new all-through schools in the 2024/25 year, including four enlargements in Nou Barris and one merged institute in Sant Andreu. A separate three-year innovation effort called Xarxes per al canvi is training 152 schools, 87 public and 65 state-funded, in competence-based teaching methods. Beginning in 2027 the region will introduce the single digital platform La Meva Educació to handle school paperwork, grades, payments and absences in place of multiple existing applications. These measures position Barcelona among other major cities that have tightened device rules and consolidated digital systems in recent years. Families can expect continued work on existing facilities through the remainder of the summer and the phased rollout of the unified platform after 2027.