The Balearic Islands lose 641 teachers in public schools while the private ones gain 340

PalmaPublic schools in the Balearic Islands have lost 641 teachers in a single academic year, while private schools have incorporated 340. This is stated in the 2026 Yearbook of Education of the Balearic Islands, which confirms an opposite evolution of the teaching staff according to the ownership of the centers. Between the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years, the public network went from 16,101 to 15,460 teachers, a decrease of 4%, while the private network increased from 6,782 to 7,122, an increase of 5%. As a whole, the Balearic Islands' education system went from 22,883 to 22,582 teachers, 301 fewer than the previous academic year, which represents a reduction of 1.3%.

The decrease in teaching staff coincides with a slight drop in total enrollment. For the 2025-2026 academic year, the Balearic Islands have 197,910 students enrolled in general education programs, 289 fewer than the previous year. The reduction is also concentrated in public centers, which lost 1,234 students, while private ones incorporated 945 more. Despite this evolution, 63.8% of the student body remains enrolled in the public network.

This general snapshot, however, hides another trend: the weight of foreign students continues to increase. According to the yearbook, it has gone from 13.6% to 19.3% in the Balearic Islands in the analyzed time series, while in the State it has grown from 8.5% to 13.5%. The increase in this percentage does not, in itself, imply that all these students need specific educational support, but it provides context regarding the transformation of the composition of the classrooms.

Growth is interrupted

The loss of teachers in the last academic year breaks the upward trend of previous years. In the 2016-2017 academic year, the Balearic Islands had 17,499 teachers in General Regime education centers: 12,317 in the public network and 5,182 in the private one. The total number increased continuously until reaching 22,883 teachers in the 2024-2025 academic year, before falling back to the current 22,582. The difference between the two networks is significant. While public teaching staff has decreased by 4% in one year, the private sector has grown by 5%. The data, however, do not allow us to conclude that the teachers missing from the public sector have moved to work in the private sector, nor do they explain the causes of this evolution.

The Yearbook also points out that the average number of students per full-time teacher remains below the national average. In the 2024-2025 academic year, the indicator stood at 9.5 students per teacher in the Balearic Islands, compared to 10.8 in the State. In the Balearic public network, the average was 8.5 students per teacher, while in the private sector it reached 12.1. These ratios, however, correspond to the 2024-2025 academic year and do not allow us to know what effect the loss of teaching staff in the following year has had. Furthermore, the average number of students per teacher does not by itself reflect the complexity of the classrooms or the support needs of each center.

More students per classroom

Another indicator included in the Yearbook of Education is the average number of students per unit. In Infant education, the Balearic Islands and the state as a whole show very similar figures, between 15.5 and 15.6 students per classroom. In Primary education, however, the Balearic average has risen to 20.6 students per group, above the state's 20.3. In secondary education (ESO), the regional ratio is 23.8 students, lower than the national average of 24.3. The report also detects a rise in repetition rates across the three analyzed levels of Primary education and in the first and second years of secondary education (ESO), while it decreases in the third and fourth years of secondary education (ESO). In the long term, repetition maintains a downward trend, but the evolution of the last academic year introduces a change in this trajectory.

In parallel, vocational training (FP) continues to gain students. Since the 2016-2017 academic year, enrollment in face-to-face intermediate vocational training cycles has increased by approximately 43%, and in face-to-face higher vocational training cycles by 58%. In contrast, face-to-face baccalaureate programs have registered a slight decrease in the last academic year.