In this week’s Inside Spain, we explore why textbooks and other school materials are so eye-wateringly expensive in a country reputed for its low salaries.
Every September, Spain’s newspapers run the same headline without fail: la vuelta al cole más cara de la historia (the most expensive return to school in history).
As dramatic as it may seem, they do have a point. The initial expense for the 2026/2027 academic year will cost parents in Spain an average of €505 per child, including schoolbooks, uniforms, rucksacks and stationery.
That includes me now, as my three-year-old son started school this week for the first time.
His schoolbooks for the year cost just under €250, which is what the Spanish would call una locura (madness).
Any parent knows that brand-new belongings don’t stay damage-free for long in the hands of a young kid, but getting him second-hand textbooks wasn’t an option in this case as they have to be scribbled on, cut up and folded. So logically you bite the bullet and cough up.
The same goes for the school uniform. How is it possible that a three-year-old’s plain white T-shirt with the school’s emblem on it can cost €18? Tracksuit bottoms for €26, tracksuit jacket for €33.
I remember this was an issue when I was a kid at school in Spain, and how the less well-off students in my class would have their mums sow or iron on the school’s logo onto their tops to cut costs.
Essentially, when something is compulsory and there is little if no competition (school uniforms are sold just by the school and/or one exclusive vendor) they have more freedom to set the price they want.
LISTED: The changes to schools in Spain for the 2026/2027 academic year
When it comes to textbooks, Spain actually has the most expensive ones in Europe, around 30 percent more costly than in Germany.
That seems to be down to a combination of very Spanish factors.
Frequent changes in educational laws in the country force publishers to release new editions.
Spain’s 17 regions all hold a degree of autonomy in education matters as well, so again this fragments the market and requires smaller, more specific print runs, increasing the cost per textbook.
There’s of course the fact that schoolbooks are a real money-maker for everyone from El Corte Inglés, the small neighbourhood bookstore and those who print the libros de texto.
Many publishers actually add online content with temporary licences or single-use activation codes which prevents piracy and forces parents to buy new material every year.
And if you factor in all of the above, it’s not hard to see why Spain’s second-hand textbook market has a pretty hard time taking off.
To be clear, there are textbook grants available in Spain but parents usually have to prove low earnings.
Unlike other European Union countries where textbooks are completely free or subsidised by state governments, in Spain the system of aid through grants or book banks varies greatly between regions and doesn’t usually cover the total expense for families.
According to Spain’s National Statistics Institute, the average total cost per schoolchild in Spain is €2,056 per academic year.
There are logically big differences in initial back-to-school prices depending on whether a child goes to a public school (€332), a concertado one (€446) or a private school (€508), and those price differences are maintained throughout the school year.
We’ve signed up our son to a concertado (state-subsidised) school, mainly because it is just up the road from where we live and it has a fairly good reputation according to people we know.
During the presentation, the headmistress said that parents can pay a ‘voluntary’ fee every month, but it’s well-known that concertado schools expect every parent to pay no matter what, or their kid risks being left out of activities.
READ ALSO: Spain’s state-subsidised schools break law by charging ‘fees’ for free education
Therefore, I’m expecting the unexpected, but at least I know there are plenty more like me in the same boat.
