2026-2027 academic year: public school loses 24 students for every one of the charter school

PalmaThe Balearic Islands will begin the 2026-2027 academic year with fewer students in both public and charter schools. The decline, however, is not distributed evenly. Of the 2,342 students that the educational system will lose compared to last year, 2,248 correspond to public schools and only 94 to charter schools. The picture left by the enrollment figures is, therefore, one of a general decrease in the student body that affects both networks, but with a much more intense impact on public centers. Specifically, public centers go from 106,876 students in the 2025-2026 academic year to 104,628 this year, a reduction of 2.1%. Charter schools, on the other hand, go from 54,325 to 54,231 students, only 0.2% less. The trend follows the path of the start of the two previous academic years (2024-2025-2025-2026), when the public sector cumulatively lost more than a thousand students and the charter sector added 2,607.

This year's data mean that the public sector accounts for 96% of the student loss recorded across the entire system. Or, put another way, for every student who leaves the charter sector, almost 24 leave the public sector. The decline, however, is taking place in a context where the Department of Education does not plan to reduce resources. On the contrary. Minister Antoni Vera has announced that the school year will begin with 19,003 teaching positions, 224 more than the previous year, "a figure without precedent": 198 additions to the public sector and 26 to the charter sector. The public sector will have 14,375 teaching positions, while the charter sector will have 4,628. Over the course of the legislative term, Vera asserts that the public network has incorporated 1,315 more teachers.

Support staff

The Department of Education maintains that the reduction in enrollment does not necessarily imply a reduction in the needs of the schools. The arrival of students during the school year, the increase in specific support needs, and the commitment to reducing ratios explain, according to the Department of Education, why staff numbers continue to grow despite the overall decline in students. This school year there will be 39 more support specialists, reaching 171, and 16 new guidance counselors, reaching 467. There will also be 426 Educational Technical Assistants (ATE).

Furthermore, the Department of Education will incorporate 11 health psychologists to attend to primary schools, especially in the third cycle. Of these, six in Mallorca, three in Ibiza, and two in Menorca. In Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, and Vocational Training, the minister has placed at 79 the number of psychologists who have already been working since the 2025-2026 school year. This reinforcement policy also extends to ratios. Vera has assured that this school year there will be 166 groups with reduced ratios and that only 25 of the 4,798 official groups exceed the maximum legal ratio. These groups, he explained, have additional resources. However, the schools insist that the large number of cases and realities they have to deal with make it impossible for them to work in optimal conditions, even without working with maximum quotas.

22 more modular classrooms

The loss of students does not mean that the system stops needing new spaces. In fact, the educational building stock is, in general, old. Education will begin the academic year with 187 modular classrooms installed (22 more than last year): 149 in Mallorca, 7 in Menorca, 23 in Ibiza, and 8 in Formentera. Vera has justified the presence of these classrooms due to the construction work underway at the centers and the need to respond to the increase in students in certain centers and areas. There are also some used to maintain services such as canteens while work is being carried out on the buildings. Consequently, the paradox is that the global drop in enrollment coexists with the need to continue physically expanding certain centers. The aggregated data of the Balearic Islands hide very different realities depending on the territory and the center: while some lose students, others continue to need additional spaces.

The modular classrooms are part of a broader scenario of investment in infrastructure. Vera has valued the major works promoted by Ibisec during the legislature at more than 114 million euros. Currently, there are more than 71 million euros in works in progress and another 68 million corresponding to actions in the bidding phase. Added to this are 25 million in agreements with town councils. The minister has admitted that the demands are numerous and that the human resources to manage them are limited. “We do not have the human resources to deal with everything,” he noted, while defending that the Administration is working “at full capacity”. Among the planned actions is also the climate control plan for the centers. Education is finishing the projects for the first centers of the pilot plan, which include exterior insulation and window renovation before being able to install aerothermal systems. "It is not about installing air conditioning," said Vera. The University-Enterprise Foundation of the UIB is now studying 20 more centers with the goal of having the study finished in November and being able to put the actions out to tender.

Increasing needs

The snapshot of the 2026-2027 academic year is more complex than the simple overall figure of students and resources. The Balearic educational system is losing 2,342 students, but the decline falls very unevenly on the two networks: the public one loses 2,248 students and the charter one, 94. At the same time, the Department of Education is increasing staff, reinforcing diversity care teams, reducing ratios, and maintaining a strong investment in infrastructure. And it will still have to deal with the arrival of students during the year: in 2025-2026, 3,801 new enrollments were registered once classes had started, a phenomenon that Vera himself has admitted puts the system “under tension” and that "is growing".