Closure of the Polytechnic High School: teachers complain that the Education Department has no plans for the new vocational training center

PalmNine months after the announcement of the closure of the IES Politécnico in the BOIB (Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands), the school community continues to express its concern about the management of the center's transformation into an Integrated Vocational Training Center (CIFP). According to the school's faculty assembly, "despite the rush to eliminate the public school places that are to be integrated into the future CIFP Politécnico, it remains in its infancy and doesn't even have a project plan." In fact, the teachers have requested information from the Ministry of Education about the project's status. The response has been clear: "The implementation of the new educational facilities is in a very early preliminary design phase, therefore the requested project plan is not available." For now, the closure process continues. Thus, in the 2025-2026 academic year, the first year of ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education) has been eliminated, a second year ESO group has been created, and the first year of Bachillerato (Upper Secondary Education) has been eliminated. For the 2026-2027 academic year, the second year of ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education), one third-year ESO group, and the second year of Bachillerato (Upper Secondary Education) will be eliminated. The elimination of ESO and Bachillerato studies will continue during the 2027-2028 academic year with the elimination of the third year of ESO and one fourth-year ESO group, while in the 2028-2029 academic year, the last fourth-year ESO group will be eliminated.

The Ministry of Education presented the CIFP Politécnico on July 25, 2025, at an event where "the only documentation provided was a presentation including a series of sketches lacking technical validity, and stating that all vocational training studies at IES Guillem Sagrera, IES Emili Darder, and IES Emili Darder would be included." "To this day, no real steps have been taken to coordinate and manage this massive movement of students and teachers," the teachers stated.

Lack of transparency in Education

Teachers criticize the lack of transparency and dialogue, which they say is "a characteristic of Mr. Antoni Vera's department," and assert that this situation "has provoked complaints and demands from all sectors of education: families, teachers and students, but also from various neighborhood associations, such as those in the Son Serralta neighborhood, where the school is located."

According to the assembly, over the past few years, and in various public appearances, Regional Minister Vera "has given inconsistent and contradictory answers to the questions raised by these groups: how, when, and where he will create the positions he is eliminating with the closure of the Polytechnic High School, what will happen to the teaching staff, when the building renovation will begin, and whether it will affect the studies." Neither the Regional Secretary for Educational Development, Mateu Suñer, nor the Director General of Vocational Training and Educational Planning, Maria Isabel Salas, "were able to answer any of these questions." The assembly denounces that, nevertheless, "the Regional Ministry of Education is once again acting unilaterally, with an increasingly evident disregard for the entire educational community." They add that "the decision to close the Polytechnic High School ignores the requests of families and violates the labor rights of the teaching staff."

With the Regional Ministry itself admitting that no concrete project is currently underway, the teachers point out that "the only real consequence for the educational community so far has been the elimination of three hundred public school places, the removal of forty tenured teaching positions, and the closure of a secondary school that offered up to four classes per grade and two classes per grade." Finally, the assembly recalls that last year, together with the FAPA (Federation of Parents' Associations), the STEI (Teachers' Union of the Province of Ibagué), and SIAU (Union of University Students of Ibagué), and with the support of more than three hundred social organizations and individuals, they filed an administrative appeal to halt the dismantling of secondary and baccalaureate studies at the school. "This appeal is still pending," the Assembly concludes.