Ismael Alonso leaves the General Directorate of Teaching Staff and State-funded Schools and will be replaced by a public school teacher.

PalmIsmael Alonso will step down as Director General of Teaching Staff and State-Assisted Schools, a position he has held since January 2024, according to ARA Baleares and confirmed by sources close to the Catalan government. Previously, since July 2023, he had been Director General of Educational Planning, Management, and Infrastructure, an area that was divided into different positions with the change in the Education organizational structure in January 2024. Joana Maria Cabrer will take his place, assuming the role of Teaching Staff and State-Assisted Schools. She is a mathematics teacher in a public school and Councilor for Education at the Sant Llorenç des Cardassar City Council (Mallorca). She will join the Ministry at one of the busiest times of the year: competitive examinations, awarding positions to temporary staff, and preparing for the 2025-2026 academic year.

She holds a degree in Chemistry from the UIB (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) with additional training as a university technician in Chemical Engineering and a university specialist in Human Nutrition. She also obtained the Diploma of Expert in Innovation, Teaching Methodology and Evaluation Applied to Education from La Salle University. With extensive experience as a secondary school teacher, she has worked in several educational centers in Mallorca since 2007, including the San Antonio Abad, Madres Escolapias, San Felipe Neri, and La Salle Pont d'Inca schools, as well as the IES Josep Maria Llompart and IES Puig secondary schools.

During Alonso's term in Education, the difficult and very difficult to cover supplements for displaced teachers have come into force, a very well received measure, but there was also the Chaos in the allocation of temporary workers in August 2024, which kept applicants awake until dawn. All this in years when teaching vocations have declined, the lists of temporary teachers have been emptied, and the minimum ratio of applicants per place has been recorded in this year's competitive examinations.

Educational psychologists have also been introduced in public and subsidized secondary schools. However, in the 2024 and 2025 academic years, the proportion in the distribution of resources has not been respected. 39 psychologists have provided services to public secondary schools, vocational training centers, and special education secondary schools, while 36 have served secondary school students in subsidized secondary schools.

A welcome measure, but unevenly distributed

However, there is a significant difference in the number of students enrolled in some schools compared to others. At the beginning of the 2024-2025 academic year, public schools had a total of 32,141 secondary school students, while private schools had 15,479, according to data provided by the Regional Ministry. And this does not include high school students, who are far more numerous in public schools than private schools, or in vocational training centers. In total, 5,700 people—including students, teachers, and families—have been assisted through individual and group interventions tailored to the needs of each educational community. Furthermore, among other measures, support for students with special needs has been strengthened, a strategy that private schools have also benefited from.

The 2024-2025 academic year was also the first in which the Balearic Islands Protocol for Reporting Assaults on Teachers (NADIB) was in operation since its implementation in November. Once the school year ended, data accessed by ARA Baleares shows that the Ministry of Education recorded 88 notifications, seven of which were excluded. Therefore, 81 of the reported cases have been recorded. Almost half of the attacks (45.67%) are committed by families, and the rest (44 cases) by students. Assaults between professionals are not taken into account, as they are reported through other channels.

From the very beginning of Ismael Alonso's term in office, many voices within the education sector questioned his lack of suitability to lead the Teaching Personnel Department. He, in an appearance before Parliament, defended himself: "We're not a ten on all issues and that's why I prefer to surround myself with people better than me from whom I can learn day by day. I can contribute my experience in union issues and in conflict negotiation, and also in occupational risk prevention and training. My intention is to leave the technical issues to the civil servants, who will leave the technical issues to the civil servants, who. "We're not a ten, but in public schools we're not a zero either. I had 100% of the Religion teachers, who, as far as I know, are they in the public sector, or not?" he added.