The dean of chemists will direct the new Baccalaureate of Excellence of Mallorca

PalmaThe high school teacher Xavier Vadell, dean of the Official College and Association of Chemists of the Balearic Islands and a native of Andratx, will be the first director of IES Llorenç Villalonga, the new center promoted by the Ministry of Education to offer the Baccalaureate of Excellence in Mallorca from the 2026-2027 academic year and labeled as segregating by a good part of the educational community. Vadell will take on the direction after winning a competition for which he was the sole applicant and will be in charge of launching a high school that will open its doors in September. The new director shares his hometown with the Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera, also from Andratx.

The appointment of Vadell comes after a process that has been followed with interest by the educational community. Several sources consulted by this newspaper already placed him as the main candidate to lead the new institute, months before the call was officially resolved. Furthermore, several voices from the sector have denounced that the Department of Education gave very little diffusion to the competition to cover the direction of the center, a circumstance that, according to these sources, could have conditioned the fact that only one candidacy was submitted.

The new director will now have the responsibility of launching a center that is starting from scratch and that represents one of the Government's main educational commitments for the next academic year. Among the most immediate challenges, which must be resolved against the clock, are the formation of the management team, the development of the school's educational project, the linguistic project, and the rest of the organizational documents that will govern the operation of the new institute, in addition to the final configuration of the faculty.

Precisely, the composition of the teaching staff has been one of the most controversial aspects of the project. As this newspaper reported, only five tenured teachers obtained a commission of services to join the IES Llorenç Villalonga, a much lower figure than initially planned. This situation will force the Ministry to complete a significant part of the staff with interim teachers, a circumstance that has fueled criticism from various unions, who consider that the project has ended up being configured in a very different way from how it was initially presented.

A controversial project

The creation of the new high school and the Baccalaureate of Excellence have generated an intense debate within the educational community. Unions such as STEI and the Independent, Autonomous and Unitary Union (SIAU), as well as principals, teachers, families, and the opposition, have repeatedly criticized the initiative, considering that it may favor student segregation and concentrate resources in a single center. The Ministry, on the other hand, defends that the project responds to an existing demand and assures that the interest of families has been sufficient to launch it.

In addition to the management, several sources indicate that the future head of studies will be Silvia Moreno, a name that had also emerged before the official resolution of the process, although the Ministry has not yet publicly announced it. The secretariat will be taken over by María Ángeles Fullana, a 68-year-old teacher who could be retired and is enjoying an extension. With the appointment of Xavier Vadell, the new IES Llorenç Villalonga enters the final phase before the start of the course. Over the next few weeks, the staff must be completed, the internal organization of the center finalized, and preparations made for the arrival of the first students who will study the Baccalaureate of Excellence, an initiative that continues to divide education professionals.