As high temperatures increasingly bookend the beginning and end of the academic year in Spain, the Madrid government has pledged over a billion euros on air-conditioning installation in the region.
Schools in the Madrid region are set to receive over €1 billion in funding to install energy efficient air-conditioning systems as soaring temperatures increasingly bookend the beginning and end of the academic year.
This comes as students return to school and temperatures in many parts of the peninsula linger above 30C, in some cases in the mid to high-30s, which poses a serious challenge for schools as many are ill-prepared when it comes to air-conditioning.
Primary and secondary schools in Madrid will therefore receive the funding to combat extreme heat and cold through measures aimed at modernising air-conditioning systems and optimising the energy efficiency of the schools.
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The regional President, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, announced on Monday at the start of the new school year an investment of €1.24 billion to carry out the necessary refurbishments and efficiency works.
Ayuso also announced a specific plan will be launched in Madrid schools to strengthen reading comprehension in the early stages of education, complementing a scheme already in place to improve standards in mathematics.
Some 1,251,281 students return to school this week in the Madrid region, local media reports state.
The pledge to bolster air-conditioning comes amid increasing debate about the recurring high temperatures at the end and start of the academic year. This, Spanish media reports, spurred the regional government into the increase of resources allocated to air-conditioning.
“It’s an historic investment,” Ayuso said during the opening of the academic year when announcing the funding. “It’s an unprecedented situation that we have never experienced before in Madrid, but that is precisely why now is the time to take urgent action,” she added.
The works will be carried out on a school-by-school basis, depending on the needs identified and in keeping with the technical options available.
The funds will be used primarily to optimise the insulation of school buildings, replace cooling equipment or install energy-efficient systems.
The work also includes the installation of solar panels, solar water heating systems and the replacement of light fittings with more energy-efficient ones.
“The aim is to carry out work across the entire public school network so that pupils in the region can enjoy the best facilities, regardless of their school’s location or age,” the regional government said of the plan.
Investment will be made over the coming academic years to strengthen the climate control plan implemented seven years ago, to which €70 million was allocated.
Improving air conditioning in classrooms has long been one of the demands made by parents’ associations, trade unions and opposition parties in Madrid.
In 2025, the Francisco Giner de los Ríos Federation of Parents’ Associations, the Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Madrid (Fravm), the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) and the General Union of Workers (UGT) submitted a joint citizens’ legislative initiative to the Madrid Assembly calling for measures to tackle extreme temperatures in classrooms.
Madrid is far from the first region of Spain to try and combat rising temperatures in the classroom, however.
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Other local and regional governments have pledged investment plans to adapt schools to climate challenges.
“Among the most ambitious initiatives is a programme in Barcelona, where 54 schools have been fitted with air conditioning, with work underway in 30 more,” according to reporting from AFP.
Authorities in the Catalan capital plan “to invest around €100 million ($116 million), funded through a tourist tax, to equip all of Barcelona’s roughly 140 primary schools, as well as 30 other education centres, by 2030,” AFP reports.
According to daily newspaper El País, in the southern region of Andalusia, a place frequently faces some of Spain’s most intense heatwaves, only around a third of schools have air-conditioning.
With reporting from AFP.
