The Baccalaureate of Excellence fills up in Palma, convinces in Ibiza and fails in Menorca

PalmaThe Baccalaureate of Excellence promoted by the Ministry of Education will begin next academic year with a response, for now, very unequal between islands. The new Llorenç Villalonga institute in Palma has already received 65 applications for the initially planned 60 places—which can be extended to 70—, while the excellence classroom at IES Algarb, in Eivissa, has registered 22 (for 30 places). On the other hand, in Menorca, the project has awakened, at the moment, much less interest: only 11 students have requested a place at IES Joan Ramis i Ramis in Maó (30 places). Of the students who have requested a place, 90.48% come from public schools. Enrollment remains active.

The data was announced this Wednesday by the Minister of Education, Antoni Vera, during a conference dedicated to the new program, which will be launched in September. The project includes the creation of the new Llorenç Villalonga institute in Palma and two excellence classrooms, one in Maó and another in Sant Josep de sa Talaia.

Vera defended that the initiative represents "a decisive step" to recognize "the effort and talent" of the students and recalled that other autonomous communities, such as Madrid, Castile and León, and Aragon, have been deploying similar programs for years. As he explained, the new Baccalaureate focuses on a methodology centered on research, critical thinking, autonomous work, and the development of analytical and communication skills.

Regarding the organization of the new institute, the minister explained that Llorenç Villalonga will initially have eight teachers, all career civil servants, while in the classrooms in Menorca and Ibiza, the center's own teachers will teach. The bulk of the Llorenç Villalonga staff has already been selected, and during the first year, some teachers will work part-time, a situation that Education plans to gradually complete.

The minister also responded to the criticism from trade unions, who have described the project as elitist. "It is not an elitist measure," he stated. Vera insisted that the program is part of diversity care. "The greatness of Education is to attend to everyone according to their needs," he assured. He also defended that the initiative has overcome all administrative and participation procedures, including the School Council of the Balearic Islands and the Sectoral Table.

Furthermore, he justified the need for the new program by academic results. "We are talking about the results of the Selectividad, which are not good; those of the extraordinary call are not good either, and the PISA results will not be good either," he stated.

"There are no interruptions or discipline problems"

The conference also served to learn about the experience of several Madrid centers that have been developing similar programs for years. The director of the San Mateo Institute in Madrid, Horacio Silvestre, defended the center's experience, one of the pioneers in this model promoted during Esperanza Aguirre's time, and assured that the project "was not improvised". As he explained, it was born as a response to the need to improve academic results and was located in a building that had been empty since the 2006-2007 academic year. The center started with three Baccalaureate groups and currently has eighteen teachers, two of whom work part-time.

Silvestre rejected the accusations of segregation that accompanied the launch of the project. "It was always said that it would be a segregating initiative and, in the end, we don't segregate anyone. What we do is group students with a great desire to learn," he stated. In this regard, he insisted that students follow exactly the same official curriculum as any other Baccalaureate student, but they complement it with activities aimed at deepening content and fostering research.

Thus, in the afternoons they participate in seminars and workshops, prepare for scientific olympiads, engage in theater activities, and develop a research project inspired by the International Baccalaureate monograph. The director also highlighted the center's coexistence climate, where, as he said, "there are no interruptions or discipline problems," allowing students to work in peace.

According to Silvestre, student satisfaction is very high, because "they find a place where they can study away from the noise, with joy and without thinking that others will look at them badly because they ask for more or show interest in learning". He also wanted to dispel the idea that these programs are reserved for highly capable students. In fact, he explained that approximately a quarter of the students take the humanities option and gave as an example that the average grade in Latin exceeds 9.5.

The director of the Diego Velázquez institute, another center, also from Madrid, with excellence classrooms, expressed himself in the same vein. He defended that these programs are also part of attention to diversity and considered it "unfair" to label them as segregating. As he explained, the majority of students who access them are not highly capable, but rather students who are particularly motivated by their studies and have strong academic interests.