Around 10,000 people marched against cuts to public education ahead of an indefinite strike planned for Oct. 14.

Around 10,000 people marched through Madrid on Sunday to defend public, secular education and protest cuts, according to the Government Delegation, ahead of an indefinite teachers’ strike scheduled to begin Oct. 14.

RELATED: Madrid Education Strike: 6 Urgent Demands Driving Spain’s Growing School Crisis

The march, organized by the Asamblea Menos Lectivas platform together with major unions and education organizations, took participants from Atocha to Cibeles. Protesters called for fewer teaching hours, lower student-to-teacher ratios and more resources for public schools.

The planned strike is also seeking improvements in teachers’ pay and working conditions, as well as additional resources to address segregation and support diversity in classrooms.

Wearing green shirts and carrying signs against cuts and Madrid regional President Isabel Díaz Ayuso, demonstrators marched behind a large banner reading, “We defend public education, we defend the future.” Other signs called for “public education for everyone, by everyone.”

🏫 Protestas por la educación pública sacuden el centro de Madrid 📚

👩‍🏫 Docentes exigen aulas menos masificadas y menor carga burocrática. Denuncian que hay 100.000 alumnos sin plaza en Formación Profesional, evidenciando la crisis del sistema educativo español. ✊… pic.twitter.com/TcIuCCdyaX

— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) September 27, 2026

Text Reads: 🏫 Protests for public education shake central Madrid 📚
👩‍🏫 Teachers demand less crowded classrooms and reduced bureaucratic workload. They denounce that there are 100,000 students without a place in Vocational Training, highlighting the crisis in the Spanish education system. ✊

The protest manifesto said teachers and families had spent “too long enduring policies that are damaging public education in Madrid” and worsening their working conditions.

“A united and organized education community”

The manifesto said participants were determined to defend their demands and public education in the region.

“We are here because we are a united and organized education community, ready to defend public education in Madrid, and we want to say loud and clear that we will firmly defend our list of demands and fight for each and every one of them,” it said.

Before the march began, Podemos Secretary-General Ione Belarra voiced support for the mobilization, saying protests, strikes and encampments were the way to achieve the changes she said were needed. She said her party would participate in and support such actions.

The education protest coincided with an encampment in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol calling for measures to end evictions and abuses by housing investors.

Belarra said such mobilizations could bring about broad social changes, arguing that major transformations had taken place when people organized through encampments, strikes and demonstrations. She said that defending public education meant an indefinite teachers’ strike, while demanding dignified housing meant an encampment.

Podemos European lawmaker Irene Montero also called for demonstrations, protests and encampments to grow, saying they could take social mobilization further than what a government wants.

The Madrid demonstration comes ahead of the indefinite strike planned for Oct. 14, with teachers, families, unions and education organizations demanding changes to working conditions, classroom ratios and resources in the public education system.

From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.