Llull dynamites the economic management of educational centers: "It is as if you bought a car and they gave you a bicycle"

PalmaThe problems with Llull, the program that is meant to replace Gest-IB as the management tool for educational centers in the Balearic Islands, continue to hinder the work of management teams. Half a year after ARA Balears made public the centers' dissatisfaction with the platform's incidents, difficulties with the digital signature of invoices persist and force directors to spend time on administrative procedures that, in theory, should be more agile. Furthermore, a large part of the academic functions that are supposed to allow leaving the previous system behind are still not operational. Because of all this, the management teams have created a WhatsApp group called Surviving Llull, where they share their concerns and dissatisfaction. The Department of Education reminds that it is software in the process of implementation.

"If I have 15 invoices, I spend a quarter of an hour on it," explains Miquel Bujosa, director of the CEIP Es Puig in Lloseta. He details that the problem is that the mass signing of documents does not work correctly and in most schools, principals have to sign invoices one by one. "The process is slow: you have to fill out the invoice, sign it, certify it, and save it. It's a drag," he laments. The incident also affects secondary schools. Francisco Tienda, director of the IES Quartó in Portmany, explains that management teams have to validate and sign invoices individually, a change from the previous procedure that multiplies administrative tasks. In a secondary school, where the volume of invoices is high, the problem can end up causing a backlog of work.

Tienda points out that the program presents constant errors and problems with the digital signature linked to the platform. One of the functions that should facilitate the work is the mass signature, which allows processing up to ten documents at a time. But, according to the director, it practically never works regularly. "It's a lottery: sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't," he summarizes. The director assures that the Department of Education is aware of the incidents and that the management teams continue to report the problems to them. According to him, the Administration has informed them that it will launch a new update to try to correct them. Meanwhile, daily management remains conditioned by technical difficulties.

5.4 million euros

The unrest in schools is once again putting the focus on a tool for which the Government awarded a 5.4 million euro contract to the multinational Ayesa. The company has implemented in the Balearic Islands an adaptation of the Séneca software, which is used by the Regional Government of Andalusia. The dependence on the Andalusian system had already become evident during the first months of deployment, when a director reported that, upon attempting to validate and sign an invoice at Llull, the program had redirected her to the Andalusian educational portal.

Last April, reports were made regarding the platform's errors, the difficulties in processing invoices, and the problems that management teams were facing with budgetary management. A month later, doubts were also published regarding the administrative processing of the contract, following discrepancies detected in the documentation concerning the people who had intervened in the procedure and whether they were authorized to do so.

Now, the new complaints point out that one of the most specific difficulties, the digital signature, continues without a stable solution. In Tienda's case, the Ministry has explained to them that the incidents would not strictly be from Llull, but from the digital signature system linked to it. Whatever the technical origin may be, the effects are transferred to the centers, which must handle the procedures manually when mass signing fails: more bureaucracy with a tool that was supposed to reduce it.

"It's like a Gmail"

Beyond financial management, the directors question the delay in the deployment of the functions that were supposed to turn Llull into a comprehensive alternative to Gest-IB. Bujosa considers that, right now, the tool is basically used to manage financial issues and exchange documents. "We use Llull as if it were an email: we send documents and receive them. Right now, Llull is not used for anything else. It should have replaced Gest-IB a year ago for inputting grades, schedules, enrollments, and relationships with families, but that has not been the case. It's like a Gmail," he criticizes. The director of CEIP Es Puig de Lloseta considers that the situation does not correspond to the cost of the project. "The cost it has for the two things it serves us for is a shame. It's as if you bought a car and they gave you a bicycle," he comments.

Tienda also expresses concern about the delay in the didactic and pedagogical part. As he explains, it was planned to be operational this year, but it still hasn't, even though the platform doesn't even work normally in the financial sphere. This situation creates anxiety regarding the moment when the student databases, which are very voluminous, have to be transferred to the new tool. "We are very afraid that, when all the student databases have to be moved, the process will not work correctly and they will end up being lost along the way," he warns.

The implementation of Llull continues to be marked by two pending issues: resolving the incidents that hinder daily management and deploying the functions that must allow for the replacement of Gest-IB. Meanwhile, the management teams continue to wait for a tool conceived to simplify administrative work to stop turning some routine procedures into an added source of problems, in an educational system that already has plenty of those.