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Catalonia Prepares for Phone Ban and Platform Shift as Schools Open in September
District leaders weigh rollout steps for the 2025/26 rules and the 2027 digital system while summer work proceeds on 83 Barcelona sites.
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Catalan schools will enforce a complete ban on smartphones and smartwatches for students in compulsory education when the 2025/26 year begins. The prohibition covers all classroom and school premises with no exceptions listed in the new policy.
The academic calendar opens September 8 for kindergarten, primary and compulsory secondary levels. Officials forecast 1,040,925 students across Catalonia, a drop of 12,013 from the prior year. The timing means families and administrators must settle device-storage procedures and communication alternatives before that date.
Renovation work under way across Barcelona
During the current summer break, crews are completing 83 separate improvement, enlargement and renovation projects at Barcelona schools. These form part of a 95-measure package backed by more than €62 million. The actions target existing facilities ahead of the September opening and continue a multi-year push to modernise buildings.
School segregation indices in Barcelona have already fallen between the 2020/21 and 2023/24 years. The pre-school and primary measure declined from 0.49 to 0.39, while the secondary figure moved from 0.44 to 0.34. Local education offices will track whether further infrastructure changes affect those trends once classes resume.
Digital platform decision ahead for 2027
Starting in 2027, Catalonia plans to introduce the single platform La Meva Educació. The system is intended to replace dozens of existing apps used for paperwork, grades, payments and absence records. School directors and municipal teams must now decide on data-migration schedules and staff training timelines to meet that deadline.
Parents and administrators will face concrete choices over the coming months on device collection routines for the phone ban and on integration steps for the future platform. City and regional education offices have begun issuing guidance documents that outline the required steps without additional local variations at this stage.