The Department of Education creates the Docent 360 working group to improve the emotional well-being of teachers

PalmThe Balearic Islands Ministry of Education and Universities has created a new working group to improve the emotional well-being of teaching staff. The initiative responds to "a growing and shared concern within the entire educational community" and aims to establish effective support measures for teachers. The Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera, explained that "we are concerned about the emotional well-being of our students, but also that of the entire educational community and, especially, the teaching staff," and emphasized that the Government's intention is "to identify effective measures to support teachers' emotional well-being." The working group will be chaired by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education and will include representatives from the Directorates General for Teaching Staff and Attention to Diversity, representatives from Convivèxit (a Catalan educational initiative), representatives from the legal department, representatives of teaching staff, as well as representatives from the education inspectorate and occupational risk prevention services. It will also feature the participation of external experts, such as the former dean of the Faculty of Education, Miquel Oliver, the Official College of Psychologists of the Balearic Islands (COPIB), and the Institute of Mediation.

The working group will gather input from daily educational work, but will also draw on an ongoing study led by Miquel Oliver and Maria Rosa Rosselló that analyzes the well-being of more than 5,000 teachers in the Balearic Islands. The goal is "to develop a realistic assessment that will allow us to design an evidence-based plan to improve teacher well-being." Currently in its initial phase, the first conclusions and proposed measures are expected before Easter. Some of the group's objectives are to develop and coordinate tools that will allow for the implementation of individual and school-wide actions, establish concrete and applicable measures to strengthen teachers' emotional well-being, and monitor their impact. "We are concerned about teachers' emotional well-being because it is a fundamental pillar of the education system, of which we are proud," emphasized Vera, who advocated for moving towards "a model that takes care of overall well-being: not only socio-labor improvements, but also emotional well-being."

For his part, Miquel Oliver explained that the study is in its first phase. "The questionnaire has already been administered, with the participation of nearly 5,000 teachers, almost 25% of the total," he detailed. He also highlighted that it has "stratified reliability by educational stage and professional experience." Currently, they are working on the extensive analysis of the data and expect to be able to present conclusions shortly. The qualitative phase, with focus groups, will take place in February and March.

Psychologists, also in Primary Education starting next school year

In this same context, it's worth noting that the Department of Education will incorporate psychologists into Early Childhood and Primary Education centers starting next school year, to support fifth and sixth grade students. Vera recalled that "since the beginning of this legislative term, student well-being has been a priority" and that the Government was already a pioneer in incorporating psychologists into secondary schools "starting in the second year." According to the Minister, schools "are becoming increasingly complex, with more diverse situations," and he argued that "what we must do is move forward within this complexity and ensure that the education system can evolve without creating barriers." In this regard, he emphasized that "the psychological aspect is a key component." Vera also assured that the Department will address bureaucratic issues in schools. "We share this demand because we have also experienced it," she asserted, acknowledging that without digital tools it is difficult to reduce it, since much of the legislation is based on state regulations. For this reason, she highlighted the investment in digitization, with the Llull platform and a specific digital platform for teaching staff.