The Alcudia Secondary School (IES) protests against the reduction in teaching staff that will occur next year.

The teaching staff of the IES Alcúdia decided, at their last meeting of the school year, to protest to the Ministry of Education about the planned teacher cuts for the 2025-2026 academic year. According to sources at the school, the quota has been reduced by 3.5 teachers, despite the fact that next year "an increase in the student body is expected." In a document obtained by ARA Baleares and which will be sent to the Administration, the teachers express their anger at the measures adopted by the Ministry. "We want to express our absolute rejection of the cuts that the Ministry of Education has implemented both in the staff of our school and in the rest of the public schools in the Balearic Islands," they state. At the CEIP Vialfàs (Sa Pobla), for example, one group has been lost—the 6th grade of Primary School, which was split into two classes—but two teaching positions have been eliminated.

Along the same lines, they explain that these cuts will mean the loss of teaching positions in several departments, the loss of support profiles, and "a very high increase in classroom ratios up to the maximum permitted by law and the impossibility of maintaining the split teaching. Current regulations establish a maximum ratio of 25 students in Early Childhood and Primary Education, 30 in Secondary Education, and 35 in Baccalaureate. These can be increased by 10% due to enrollment needs."

However, the volume of students with Specific Educational Needs (SESE), which includes a large proportion of newcomers, means that these ratios are considered extremely high, given the educational situation in the Balearic Islands. There are many students with difficulties in the classrooms and, in most cases, only one teacher to attend to them all. A plan to reduce these ratios remains to be implemented to comply with the provisions of the Educational Framework Agreement signed between the unions and the Pact Government.

"The reasons that motivate us to express this rejection are the dramatic consequences that these cuts will have on the quality of education and on our students, especially those who need more personalized attention. As a teaching staff, we cannot, nor do we want, to allow the policies of the Ministry of Education to harm our Alcudia."

Discontent in public schools

The reduction in teaching positions reported by the IES Alcúdia is not the only decision by the Regional Ministry that has generated discontent among the education community. Last Wednesday, the green T-shirts invaded Plaza de París in Palma. More than 200 people—500, according to the organizers—including family members, teachers, and students, gathered, organized by the platform "La pública no se tocar" (The Public Education System Is Not To be Touched), to protest against the progressive disappearance of school places promoted by the Education Ministry. "You can't play with the education and future of children and young people. We don't want them to have to go to overcrowded schools. They have the right to go to their neighborhood school. We don't want families to be forced to send them to private schools they haven't chosen, with ideologies they don't share. They have the right to a quality public education, and they have the right to a quality public education, and they have the right to equity for all students," the protesters demanded. Along the same lines, they demanded a "strong, accessible, and sufficient" public education network to meet the social needs of each area, "as required by Article 104 of the Balearic Islands Education Law (LEIB)."

The manifesto recalled thatThe Polytechnic High School is in the process of disappearingto become an Integrated Vocational Training Center (CIFP). Next year, there will no longer be any students in the first year of ESO. As a result, the Palma city center area will have one less school for children who must enroll in secondary school, coming from the CEIP Aina Moll, CEIP El Terreno, CEIP Génova, CEIP Rey Jaume I, and CEIP Santa Catalina. The consequence will be that the IES Ramon Llull and Joan Alcover will be filled, and also that the private schools will take advantage of the disappearance of public places to increase the number of clients.

Families, the platform claimed, have the right to a quality public education in their neighborhood, "without having to depend on a car, or assume additional costs, or be forced to choose unwanted options." This last is the case of the CEIP Castillo de Santa Águeda (Ferreries), where 11 families of 4th grade children who wanted to attend public school have been excluded and, if they want to enroll their children, they will have to go to a private school. San Francisco, or try your luck in another municipality. There were solutions to avoid this, since the Santa Águeda Castle is willing to open a new public school. The Ministry of Education has not accepted it.