Revolt of the cloisters for the cuts in teachers and groups: "Vera, next year will not be normal"

PalmaThe opposition against the educational planning of the Ministry of Education for the 2026-2027 academic year is beginning to be felt in public schools in the Balearic Islands. The teacher assemblies of two institutes, IES Can Peu Blanc in sa Pobla and IES Sa Blanca Dona in Ibiza, have made public two highly critical manifestos in which they denounce the reduction of teaching staff, the elimination of groups and subjects, and the increase in student-teacher ratios planned in numerous centers. Both senates agree in warning that the cutbacks compromise the quality of public education and call on the Ministry to rectify.

The teachers at Can Peu Blanc assure that "on the eve of the holidays, summer sales have arrived at many centers: fewer groups and less teaching staff" and affirm that, after years of lack of resources, this decision "is the last straw". As they explain, the center will lose three teachers despite being a preferred attention institute. "They inform us of the cut on the last school Friday and after having to beg, they award us two with an accusation and a gift threat: an audit because we do not manage resources well", they denounce. Originally, the staff reduction was five teachers. As they assure, on Tuesday the center's inspector requested all documentation to justify that the institute can be a Preferred Attention Center (CAP).

Majority of students with needs

The assembly maintains that this justification is incompatible with the reality of the center, where they assure that there is "an average of 60% of students with specific educational support needs (NESE) per group" and that "we still lack resources to provide quality attention to all students". In this regard, they summarize the situation with a forceful phrase: "Lots of propaganda in the press, but no real improvement in the classrooms", they say, in relation to the management of Education. The center has a high percentage of newly arrived students, with no knowledge of the official languages and with structural social problems.

The teachers also lash out at the criteria used by the Ministry to calculate staffing. They consider that the system is "obsolete" or that "perhaps it is cleverly designed to continue cutting while hiding behind legality", because it only takes into account the number of students and not the complexity of the groups or the special educational needs. The manifesto directly addresses the minister Antoni Vera and invites him to visit the center. "Minister Vera, please come to our center", they demand, before adding that they will show him data on vulnerable students, lack of infrastructure, extreme temperatures in classrooms, and the workload of teachers. "Come, we will tell you how our mental health and stress levels are because we can't manage everything", they add. The assembly also accuses the Government of progressively deteriorating public education. "Public centers are underfunded. We lack resources and you are privatizing them", they state, and maintain that it is "a long-term strategy".

Therefore, they warn that the situation has reached its limit. "In September everything will be worse and we cannot and do not want to sustain more courses under these conditions," they assure, before announcing mobilizations for the next academic year. The manifesto concludes with a direct warning to the minister: "Minister Vera, next year will not be a normal year."

Elimination of subjects

The protest has also reached IES Sa Blanca Dona in Ibiza. During the last faculty meeting of the year, the teachers' assembly read a manifesto denouncing "the elimination of subjects for the next academic year", a decision that, as they explain, will lead to "fewer teachers in classrooms and an increase in student-to-teacher ratios, with all the pedagogical and coexistence problems that this entails". The teachers regret that this situation is not an isolated case, but a trend affecting other centers in the Islands. "Unfortunately, this dynamic repeats itself year after year," they denounce.

The manifesto also criticizes that some departments are forced to compete with each other for their subjects to survive. "Many departments are pushed to have to 'sell' their subjects as if the center were a market of votes and not a space for knowledge," they state.

Teachers denounce that the elimination of subjects may also force students to take them remotely through the IEDIB (Distance Education Institute), which, as they assure, represents "a dehumanization of the educational act" and "a precariousness of public education". Furthermore, they question whether the Ministry can meet the learning personalization objectives set by the regulations. "The response on the ground in the classroom is clear and categorical: individualized attention is not possible when groups are sacrificed and ratios are inflated," they sentence.

A recognized center

According to what they explain, next year subjects such as Universal Literature, Art History, Artistic Drawing, French, and Programming and Data Processing II will disappear, despite recalling that the students at the center have obtained recognition in academic competitions precisely linked to these disciplines. "Cutting here is punishing our talent," they denounce. Finally, the assembly calls on the Ministry to stop the cuts and guarantee the face-to-face educational offer. "Education cannot be managed like a private company" and "education is not quantified in profitability ratios, but in future opportunities," concludes the manifesto.

The two assemblies agree in warning that the decisions adopted for the planning of the next academic year will worsen the overload of public schools and will deteriorate both educational attention and the working conditions of the teaching staff. They also make it clear that the response will not end with these manifestos and that they are preparing new protest actions for the start of the 2026-2027 academic year.