Teacher Strike in Valencia: How to Organise Days Without School

A practical plan so Bachillerato, EBAU or IB students don't lose momentum while the dispute lasts. Not about the reasons behind it — just about what a family can do today.

Since Monday, May 11, 2026, public education in the Valencia region has been on an indefinite strike. It's the first education strike of this kind in the region since 1988. It was called by the sector's main unions — STEPV, CCOO PV, UGT-PV, CSIF and ANPE — and affects every stage: Nursery, Primary, Secondary, Bachillerato and Vocational Training. State-subsidized private schools (concertada) are not included in the call, according to the unions' own statements.

The purpose of this article isn't to go into the reasons behind the dispute, which are widely covered by the media and by the union platforms themselves. The purpose is to answer a specific question many families in Aldaia, Alaquàs, Xirivella, Torrent and the rest of l'Horta Sud are asking: "while this lasts, how do I make sure my child doesn't lose the year?"

1. What's happening, in numbers

Start date

Monday, May 11, 2026, indefinite in nature.

Called by

STEPV-Intersindical, CCOO PV, UGT-PV, CSIF and ANPE (the latter mainly in secondary education).

Scope

Public education in the Valencia region at every stage. Does not include state-subsidized private schools.

Main demands

Recovering purchasing power lost since 2010, repealing the so-called "Rovira Law," lower class-size ratios, 2,000 new teaching posts and less administrative workload.

Turnout

Figures vary by source. The regional Education Department estimated around 39% on May 15; the unions report turnout between 80% and 90%.

Day-by-day updates, scheduled demonstrations and the minimum-service requirements published in the official regional gazette (DOGV) can be checked on the unions' websites and in regional media. There's no point reproducing them here, since they change daily.

2. How it's affecting families in l'Horta Sud

In practice, students at public secondary schools in Aldaia, Alaquàs and the surrounding area face a new scenario every morning: cancelled classes, teachers on minimum-service duty, exams postponed with no clear date, assigned readings that go undiscussed, and syllabi advancing in fragments. Families receive late or contradictory communications, and many don't know whether to plan the week assuming there will be school or assuming there won't.

For a Year 6 or Year 7 (ESO) student, the immediate consequence is manageable: content is lost, but the assessment calendar allows some slack. The serious problem appears in the second year of Bachillerato, where the calendar toward the university entrance exam (EBAU) is inflexible, and in the second year of the IB Diploma, whose final exams are already scheduled by the IB itself. In these cases, every week counts.

"The problem isn't ideological — it's a calendar problem. The EBAU exam and the IB papers don't move because there's a strike. What moves is the time a student can devote to preparing for them without support."

3. Why this disruption hurts especially now

May is the most sensitive month of the academic year. In the second year of Bachillerato, it concentrates the last subject exams and the first EBAU-style mock exams. In the IB, May is the month of the official exams: the student is inside the worldwide exam session window. And in the first year of Bachillerato, May sets the grade a student carries into the decisive final year.

The difference between a well-used May and a wasted one isn't a few decimal points. It's grade points, and grade points on the EBAU translate directly into university degrees that stay open or close. The strike may end tomorrow or drag on for weeks: the student can't afford to wait and see.

4. A work plan by year group

Second year of Bachillerato (EBAU)

The goal isn't to cover new syllabus content, but to close off what's already open. Most second-year students reach May with the syllabus finished or nearly so. Two things that can't be skipped:

• One full Mathematics II mock exam per week, timed to 90 minutes, without help, marked the next day. Official past papers from Universitat de València are published on its website.
• Review by topic block on the other days: Calculus (one day), Algebra (one day), Geometry (one day), Probability (one day). Don't mix them.

For a detailed guide to handling the 90 minutes of the exam, we've written about it in how to manage the 90 minutes of the EBAU Mathematics II exam and about the EBAU format in Valencia and cut-off scores.

First year of Bachillerato

Here the calendar is less critical, but the risk runs the other way: the student uses the strike as an excuse to relax, and reaches June without the tools they'll need in the second year. The advice is simple: keep the school timetable at home. If your child had maths class from 9:00 to 10:00, keep that slot — but at home, with their own notes and exercises. Consistency of habit matters more than any extra content.

IB Diploma (Mathematics AA and AI)

Second-year IB students are in, or very close to, their official exams. Here the work is about defending what's already learned: timed past papers, mark schemes, and reviewing the official formula booklet. If the strike affects a state-subsidized or private IB-authorised school, the exam calendar doesn't change — the papers happen on the fixed worldwide date. For first-year IB students, May is the moment to close out the Internal Assessment; we've written about how to approach it in the guide to the IB Math AA Internal Assessment.

ESO

In ESO the risk isn't academic — it's about habit. If the strike drags on, two or three weeks without attending school can be enough for a student to lose their routine. The advice to families here is modest but firm: forty-five minutes of maths a day, at the same time every day, with a physical notebook. It's not about covering a lot of ground — it's about not losing study discipline.

5. Three rules to keep the routine holding

6. How an academy can help while the strike lasts

Private academies and tutors are not part of the strike call. In practice, many families are using academies this month as continuity of teaching, not just as extra support. The difference is fundamental: it's not about coming in to review what was covered in class, but about coming in to learn what class isn't currently covering.

At Ecuación Ganadora we teach mathematics in Aldaia and online to Bachillerato, EBAU and IB students. The teacher is always Álvaro López López, with direct attention over WhatsApp outside sessions too. If the strike is affecting your child and you don't want to wait and see, we can talk.