The teaching crisis is accelerating: the number of temporary teachers who cannot prove their Catalan proficiency has tripled.

PalmThe Balearic Islands' education system is once again revealing its structural deficiencies. This academic year, 644 substitute teachers are teaching without having demonstrated the required level of Catalan, according to data from the Ministry of Education, which does not specify the affected educational stages or levels. This figure is three times higher than in 2022 and demonstrates how the shortage of professionals has strained the system to the point of having to to make language requirements more flexiblewhich, under normal circumstances, would be mandatory.

The situation could worsen in the coming years, especially regarding the hiring of career civil servants. The Government will allow some teachers to become civil servants. without demonstrating linguistic competence in positions that are very difficult to fill, a measure that reopens the debate on human resource management and language policy in schools.

The regulations allow applicants without the required qualifications to access teaching positions only if there is no other candidate who does meet the requirement. In principle, these individuals are excluded from the substitute teacher lists, but when the pool is exhausted due to a lack of candidates, schools are forced to resort to them to ensure there is someone in the classroom. This scenario has a direct impact on the language model. Catalan is the language of instruction in almost all public schools, and most classes are taught in it. The arrival of teachers who are not fluent in Catalan can destabilize language projects and hinder key figures such as language advisors. Furthermore, for many students—an increasing number—school is the only place where they have regular contact with the Catalan language. And that contact is becoming less frequent. ARA Baleares has observed that some professionals readily switch languages ​​if a student speaks to them in Spanish, or simply teach in Spanish to avoid conflicts (especially in secondary and high school).

Either without Catalan, or without teachers

School management teams admit it: the priority is keeping classes running. Faced with a lack of immediate alternatives, some schools are accepting teachers without language accreditation as an exceptional solution. "The Regional Ministry of Education hadn't informed us that she wasn't fluent in the language, but they were very cooperative and asked if there would be any problem. We explained the language project to them, but we were desperate and needed her," explains one primary school. Meanwhile, the Regional Ministry of Education is preparing a further step, fueled by the pact between the People's Party (PP) and Vox. While this situation has primarily affected temporary teachers until now, the government will allow teachers without the required qualifications to become civil servants—that is, to obtain a permanent position—in areas with very limited staffing. However, they will have to compete annually until they demonstrate their Catalan proficiency.

The measure will apply to positions that the Governing Council will declare each year. However, current data suggests its impact in the coming years: this year, 877 positions have been deemed very difficult to fill, distributed as follows: 49 in Ibiza, 186 in Formentera (all of the island's positions), 138 in Menorca, and 4 in Mallorca. The debate is once again centered on two tensions: the urgent need for teachers and the preservation of the linguistic model. For the moment, the urgency takes precedence in the classrooms.

The rejection of the flexibility has been immediate. The PSIB and a large part of the educational community Unions, organizations, and groups defending the Catalan language have condemned the measure and warned that they will not back down. They believe that exempting Catalan from the requirement for hard-to-fill positions represents a setback in linguistic normalization and an attack on linguistic rights, warning that it could jeopardize social cohesion and the educational model.