Antoni Vera: "If Palma does not redistribute vulnerable students, it must be because the schools do not want it"

PalmaAntoni Vera faces the last year of the legislative term at the head of the Ministry of Education and Universities with a balance marked by the boost to subsidized private schools, the attempts to accelerate educational infrastructure, and the emergence of private universities in the Balearic Islands. Born in Palma in 1953, the minister reaches the final stretch of his mandate with some of the main educational debates still open and with the desire to vindicate the work done during these three years.

If you had to summarize in two sentences what educational system you want to leave behind in 2027, what would it be?

— I believe that, if we look back from when we started and what we will leave behind at the end of this stage, we have achieved important socio-labor educational improvements and we have marked a before and after with educational infrastructures. We have a very clear roadmap regarding the infrastructures that must be built. Furthermore, two things that personally mattered a lot to me: changing the educational curricula and ensuring that all public centers have a school canteen, because addressing vulnerability is extremely important.

In three academic years, public education has lost nearly 3,500 students and the charter sector has gained nearly 2,300. Is this difference only attributable to the chartering of 0-3 year old places?

— It is the main cause. There is a part that is for 0-3 places, which is the largest. Many of them have been subsidized. And another part is the subsidization of VET to reach more students and fight against dropout. Obviously, there has also been some increase... But the great increase in subsidized education has been due to 0-3 and VET. At the same time, has there been a loss of students? Yes, in public centers and also in subsidized ones, if we analyze Secondary, Baccalaureate, and Preschool 3-5. The loss of students is everywhere.

If the demographic decline explains the loss of students, why is the loss so unequal and affects public schools more than charter schools?

— For a simple reason. The charter school system is smaller. There are fewer centers. It is true that where there are more centers is in Palma and it is where it fluctuates the most, but public education is fully established and majority in the Part Forana, in Menorca, in Ibiza and Formentera. The loss of students, when there is a demographic decline, obviously, affects the public sector more because it has more supply.

We do not know what the educational system will be like in ten years, why is it necessary to give educational concerts for ten years?

— To provide stability to the center, its teaching staff, a pedagogical approach, and families. We must take into account that every year there are enrollments and schooling. If there are centers that do not reach the minimum, the classroom is closed, and two are unified to make one. Despite the expansion of agreements, it does not mean that it will be for ten years. Every year it is reviewed and classrooms are reduced or expanded when necessary. In Inca, for example, the semi-private sector has helped us to serve all students; if we had not been able to expand semi-private classrooms, we would have had a very serious problem. Public education in Inca could not handle everything, because students from compulsory secondary education (ESO) and Baccalaureate arrive from other towns and it is under pressure.

In the event of an economic crisis and if you had to close classrooms, would you close public or charter schools first?

— It would be eliminated from where it was in excess. I hope we do not find ourselves in this case. If I have a public or charter classroom where there are no students, it is closed. We have maintained as many as possible. A maintenance plan for public classrooms with low ratios was carried out, and an impeccable job has been done to preserve them, despite the demographic decline.

We are finishing the legislature and Palma still lacks an agreement for the balanced distribution of vulnerable students between public and charter schools. Who is vetoing this agreement and what have you done to unblock it?

— It is not that there is any veto. I, if there is an agreement between the City Council and all the charter and public schools, will be the first to be delighted. But for there to be a municipal agreement, everyone must be on board. The Department can act as an arbiter, but everyone must want it. The public schools are ours, the City Council is somewhat independent, but the schools must want it. Everyone must want it.

And the centers don't want it, then?

— Well, it hasn't been proposed exactly like that, but I understand that if Palma does not redistribute vulnerable students, it must be because the schools do not want to or because there may also be other issues.

The Balearic Islands are worsening in all three PISA competencies. You advocate for recovering the contents and limiting screens. If in three or six years the results do not improve, will you be willing to acknowledge that the problem was not only about the contents?

— There is also the context or the fact that the matter in question has not been addressed. Madrid has 15.5% newcomers; the Balearic Islands, 19%. Madrid has the best PISA results and has surpassed Castile and León, which admittedly has no newcomers. Madrid has the same percentage as Valencia and they have failed...

There are also those who argue that it is because of the 'damn Catalan'.

— I do not agree with that, because Galicia is up north and it also has two languages. The problem of the drop in reading comprehension is not because of this, but because screens do not help. Languages cannot be learned with screens: paper and pen are needed. Reading books must be recovered. A secondary school student must know how to underline a reading book, read a novel, and search for its important concepts. It is also necessary to regulate AI in education. Our context, I know it is complicated: we have many newcomers, constant arrivals of students, but we must start to consolidate goals for each course and stage. Now there is a lot of diversity between one school and another and we must start to unify the level.

Now we not only have students who do not know Catalan, but professors who do not master it. What would you say to someone who thinks that Catalan could end up being lost as well, in your own words "in the last bastion of the language"?

— We have the obligation to guarantee Catalan as the vehicular language of the centers. However, at a given moment, we have to fill very technical positions that are currently being filled by people who do not have a master's degree or Catalan. These positions need flexibility, but not so that they are forever without Catalan: later, knowledge of it will have to be demonstrated. However, teacher or Catalan professor positions do not come out in the urgent procedure, precisely because we cannot control the levels of those who take them. As of now, we must ensure that the professionals who arrive at the schools have the level of Catalan and that they accredit it.

Beyond the PALIC and cultural programs, what have you done this term so that Catalan gains real presence in the classrooms?

— We have done much more than what they did in eight years of the Pact. Because in eight years as a Catalan teacher at my school, no one even said ‘good morning’ to me. Apart from those of PALIC and linguistic promotion, we are creating material and resources. Schools need something to work with because they currently have no material. The study of the language requires it, especially at younger ages. Schools are desperate to have resources to work with and to engage students with Catalan, because they hadn't been given anything. At the Publications Center, there are still the COFUC boxes from when I was there.

You presented a ten-year infrastructure plan. Were you too ambitious?

— I don't think so. It is clear that at the end of the ten years there will be actions that will not have been carried out, but perhaps they will have been reformulated. We are now in annual work dynamics. Three new infrastructures this academic year, two more will be incorporated during the year. We know that next year there will be five more. We do not stop: visits, new works, we will lay foundation stones. We still have a legislature and a half left. We must trust in it.

Is it fair that those who design education are air-conditioned and most schools are not?

— Totally agree, it is not fair. But we have a great many old educational centers without climate control. As an Administration, we cannot just take air conditioners and put them in the classrooms. What we must do is look at joinery, thermal insulation, look at ceilings, solar panels, with climate control that is efficient with the environment. A series of centers come to mind that have had climate control for years. The town councils have not carried out maintenance on them and, because of that, the installation breaks down. We go there to fix it, we offer to take it on, the technician goes there and the first thing they tell you is: “This is useless, it has to be changed”. We cannot go any faster, we do not have more staff.

You have created a Baccalaureate of Excellence for students with the best academic records. Why have you not promoted a program for Baccalaureate students with greater learning difficulties, if the goal was to provide better attention to diversity?

— In Baccalaureate, curricular adaptations can already be made. We have put into operation the Baccalaureate for adults, intended for students over 18 years of age, and this year we are implementing it in Menorca and Ibiza. The Excellence Baccalaureate was not invented by us; it is done in other communities.

Isn't the message being given that mainstream school cannot attend to students with higher performance?

— Of course they are well cared for. But perhaps an ordinary school will not be able to bring out all the potential they might have, because it has to attend to and teach the same material to the majority of students. Let the students of the Excellence Baccalaureate do it. I do not think it is dramatic that there is an excellence group in Mallorca, in Menorca, and in Ibiza. If there were Excellence Baccalaureate throughout the Balearic Islands, it would not make sense.

If you had a child today who wants to study Medicine, would you recommend that they study at the UIB or at the CEU? Why?

— Let's see, I would like him to go wherever he wants. I have always advised my children, sometimes it went well, sometimes it didn't.

And you, knowing both projects, what would you choose?

— As of now, I do not know.... The CEU has just started in the Balearic Islands and needs maturation, and the UIB has been around for many years. The UIB Faculty of Medicine today has viability thanks to our decree that facilitates the compatibility between the healthcare activity of health professionals and teaching.

You say that this legislature you have negotiated everything with the educational community. The unions and other interlocutors, however, say that the Department of Education limits itself to informing about its decisions. Who is lying?

— We have the responsibility of Government. And we have set our policy, because we had some commitments such as the free choice of school. If they tell me that we do not reach a consensus, it is because, clearly, there are things that we carried in our electoral program and we have done them. On the other hand, there are other matters that we can talk about... the Teaching Staff Decree, as much as they say it was without consensus... they voted for it in all the public education boards.

Do you want to be a minister again in 2027?

— It has been exciting. Education is the most intense department. The decisions you have to make affect many people and that is dizzying, because it is not the same as when I was in the fields of culture, where what you decide affects a smaller group. I am a party person and I will be where I am told.