The class-size and teaching-hours bill: what changes for schools, and when

Reducing the number of pupils per classroom is one of the oldest demands of the teaching profession, and in 2026 it has taken a concrete step: in April the Government approved a bill that lowers maximum class sizes and, for the first time, sets a legal cap on the teaching hours of teachers in state education. In June, Congress rejected the amendments to the whole text, and the bill continues its passage.

For a school, especially a grant-aided one, the change touches planning directly: how many groups are needed, how many classrooms, how many teachers, and how many places it can offer each year.

What the bill proposes

• Ratios in publicly funded schools: a maximum of 22 pupils per class in primary (25 today) and 25 in compulsory secondary, ESO (30 today).
• Pupils with special educational needs: in publicly funded schools, each pupil with these needs would count as two places.
• Teaching hours for state-school teachers: a maximum of 23 hours a week in early years, primary, and special education, and 18 in the other stages. The text provides for limited exceptions, offset with complementary hours.
• Timetable: gradual application from the 2027-2028 school year until full implementation in 2031-2032.

The other text: the royal decree on minimum requirements

In parallel, the Ministry is processing a draft royal decree that amends the minimum requirements for schools and sets ratios for every stage. According to the version known in September 2026:

• Second cycle of early years: 20 pupils per class.
• Primary: 22, starting with year 1 in 2027-2028.
• ESO: 25, starting with year 1 in 2028-2029.
• Bachillerato: 30, from 2029-2030.

It also includes, for the first time, national ratios for the first cycle of early years, which we explain in the new ratios in 0-3 nurseries. Because minimum requirements apply to schools regardless of ownership, this second text is the one independent private schools most need to follow.

What changes for a grant-aided school

With fewer pupils per class, a grant-aided school has two options: keep the number of groups and offer fewer places, or open more groups to keep the places. Both have consequences:

• Fewer places per group: fewer pupils in each entry year and, in the medium term, fewer pupils in the school.
• More groups: more classrooms, more teachers and, in the grant-aided sector, more units that must be under the funding agreement in order to be financed.

An indicative example: a school with two classes of 25 in year 1 of primary offers 50 places today. With a ratio of 22, the same two classes would offer 44. To keep 50 places it would need a third class, with its classroom, its tutor, and its funded unit.

The fall in the birth rate makes the calculation less dramatic in many schools: if demand falls, adjusting the offer to 22 may coincide with what the school was going to need anyway. We look at this in fewer children, the same places.

What changes for staffing

The cap on teaching hours in the bill refers to teachers in state schools. In grant-aided and independent private schools, working time is governed by the relevant collective agreement, so the direct effect of this point on those schools will depend on sector bargaining, not on the law.

What does affect everyone is the number of groups: if a school needs more classes because ratios fall, it will need more teaching hours, regardless of how working time is regulated.

How to prepare this year

Enrolment for 2027-2028, the first year affected, is decided over the course of this year and in the admissions process in spring 2027. Some reasonable steps:

1. Map ratios by year: current and expected pupils against 22 in primary and 25 in ESO, year by year according to the timetable.
2. Identify the groups that would exceed the ratio in the year it applies to them, and whether expected demand would resolve it or a split would be needed.
3. Review the spaces: classrooms available if groups had to be opened.
4. Calculate the impact on staffing and, if you are grant-aided, on the funded units.
5. Adjust the places on offer in the admissions process in good time, and explain it to interested families.
6. Follow the passage of both texts: the timetable and the transitional provisions can change.

Conclusion

The reduction in ratios is not yet law, and its timetable can move, but it already sets the planning horizon for the next five school years. Schools that are clear about how many pupils are in each group, how many they expect, and how many classrooms they can open will be able to decide calmly; those who calculate it in spring will do so with the admissions process already on top of them.

If you want pupils by group, places, and the trend in enrolment applications on a single screen, see Edena for schools or book a demo.