A total of 1,434 teachers have applied to participate in the competitive examination for teaching positions in the Balearic Islands, which will be held on May 9th and 10th. According to a statement from the Ministry of Education and Universities, 1,066 applicants have applied in Mallorca; 75 in Menorca; 281 in Ibiza; and a dozen in Formentera. These figures represent an increase compared to last year, when 1,290 applications were received.

"All of us unfortunate souls who teach second-year Baccalaureate students will have to take our exams to Vera for grading." Phrases like this have been circulating in teachers' WhatsApp groups in recent hours. In this case, the author is a Social Sciences teacher who is taking the competitive exams this year and doesn't hide her anger at the Ministry of Education's decision to move the exams forward to May, a month earlier than usual. The other option was to hold them in October, with the drawback that those who passed wouldn't start teaching until the 2027-2028 school year.

Tensions surrounding the 2026 teacher recruitment exam schedule reached their peak this Thursday when most unions walked out of the sectoral meeting convened by the Ministry of Education to decide whether the exams would take place in May or October. The STEI Intersindical union justified its absence, accusing the department of "blackmail" and of shirking "its responsibility to guarantee the start of the exams in June." Ultimately, the Ministry of Education made the decision unilaterally, and the exams will be held on May 9th and 10th. Previously, they were held in June. The conflict has been brewing for weeks. Initially, the Ministry proposed moving the exams to the weekend of May 9th and 10th, arguing that this would allow for all administrative procedures—assigning positions, managing temporary staff, and filling vacancies—to be completed during July, thus ensuring that schools begin the academic year with their staffing levels in place. Education Minister Antoni Vera argued that it was necessary "not to have this process in the middle of all the other processes we have in education" and warned that, if the calendar is not reorganized, "we will once again find that teachers will not be in the Islands or in the schools in September."

The Balearic Ministry of Education and Universities has announced that unions will be able to choose the date for the 2026 teacher recruitment exams between May and the weekend of October 16th, following widespread rejection of the initial proposal to hold them in May. The measure aims to make the process more flexible and avoid an excessive concentration of procedures before the start of the school year. Traditionally, teacher recruitment exams in the Balearic Islands took place in June, but the initial proposal had moved the exams forward to May 9th, which generated widespread opposition among teachers and unions. According to a survey by the STEI Intersindical union, 70% of teachers opposed the May date. The UOB union also expressed its displeasure, as did SIAU, Alternativa, UGT, and CCOO. The decision will be made this week, as the official announcement must be published.

A group of 16 applicants for the selection process to fill 26 firefighter/driver positions with the Palma City Council have publicly denounced an "absolute lack of transparency," repeated failure to meet deadlines, and a "total absence of planning" in a competitive examination that, they explain, has been dragging on for more than two years. The applicants assert that the process directly violates the doctrine established by the Supreme Court in a January 2022 ruling, which stipulates that the evaluation and grading criteria for selection tests must be defined and published before they are administered, as a guarantee of the principles of equality and merit. They point out that the same ruling warns that the lack of these criteria constitutes a "substantial flaw" that can lead to the test being declared null and void. In this regard, the applicants denounce the fact that the grading criteria for the psychometric and personality tests were never published. They also claim that the examining board itself announced in writing, in a pre-test proceeding, that these criteria and cut-off scores would be communicated before the start of the exercises, information which, they maintain, "was never provided."

The proposal from the Valencian Ministry of Education to bring forward the 2026 teacher recruitment exams to May has sparked widespread rejection among teachers. According to a survey conducted by the STEI union of 800 people, 70% of teachers are openly against the measure, which they believe would reduce candidates' preparation time and increase pressure on schools at a critical point in the academic year. The department headed by Minister Antoni Vera proposes that the exams, usually scheduled for June, be held on May 9th and 10th. The aim is to concentrate administrative procedures, such as the allocation of positions and the management of substitute teachers, during July, thus preventing schools from starting the academic year with incomplete staff. According to the Ministry, the current schedule concentrates too many processes into a short period and creates administrative emergencies at the end of the summer. In the middle of the academic year

STEI points out that bringing forward the tests at this point in the school year affects both candidates and teachers: the former would see their study time shortened, while management and teaching teams would have to combine preparing for the competitive exams with final exams, evaluation sessions and other activities typical of May and June.

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The Platform of People Affected by the Selection Process for the Guardianship and Support Service for Adults of the Balearic Foundation for Dependency (FBD) publicly denounced on Tuesday the alleged existence of serious irregularities in the competitive examination called to fill staff positions corresponding to public offers 2 of 2 and 2. According to a statement released by the group, the selection process – published in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (BOIB) on March 6 – violates the principles of ability, merit, and legal certainty, with direct consequences for both the applicants and the functioning of a public service they consider essential. The Guardianship and Support Service, responsible for complying with court orders, is currently, according to the platform, under severe strain, with high staffing levels and a high degree of complexity. In this context, they denounce that the deficiencies in the selection process jeopardize the continuity and quality of care for service users.

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The Balearic School of Public Administration (EBAP) of the Balearic Government has approved the call for applications for the 47th cohort of the Basic Capacity Course for entry into the Local Police force, corresponding to the year 2026, with a total of 222 places. This new edition consolidates a stable and planned training model that allows municipalities to incorporate new officers in a coordinated manner and with a regular training schedule. The resolution was published in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (BOIB) on Saturday, December 6, 2025, and is already in effect, as explained by the Ministry of the Presidency, Coordination of Government Action, and Local Cooperation. Of the 222 places, 166 are for Mallorca; 20 for Menorca; and 36 for Ibiza, although this allocation may be adjusted for duly justified reasons. The course will be delivered in a decentralized manner across the three islands, so that candidates will receive training in the territory where they passed the municipal selection process. This organization aims to strengthen the connection between training and the operational realities of each municipality, facilitating local resource planning. The Basic Capacity Course will begin in the second half of January 2026 in Mallorca and in the first half of February in Menorca and Ibiza. The training will consist of two stages, with the goal of providing municipalities with trainee officers during the summer months. During this period, students will complete part of the practical phase in the municipalities and will resume training at the EBAP (Basic School of Public Administration) in September to complete the course. In total, the program includes 825 hours of instruction, which will be delivered in five groups in Mallorca, one in Menorca, and one in Ibiza. Municipalities with ongoing selection processes must submit their application for reserved places within 10 business days of the publication of the call for applications. Simultaneously, the EBAP (Basic School of Public Administration) will automatically register those who passed the 2025 Unified Selection Process and have been assigned a place, provided they do not possess the Basic Competency Course certificate. Those with the certificate will directly begin the practical training phase in their respective municipalities. The resolution reminds municipalities that before the start of the course, they must provide trainee civil servants with the required uniforms and ensure they have a device with an internet connection to participate in online activities. Throughout the course, students will receive the remuneration established by current regulations for their status as trainee civil servants. The EBAP plans to publish the final resolution for the allocation of places in the Unified Process next week, thus completing the necessary planning for municipalities to organize the integration of the new cohorts.

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There is still almost a year to go until the 2026 teaching competitions, but the Ministry of Education is already working to determine which specialties will be open for positions, taking into account expected retirements and coverage of the replacement rate. In Mallorca, positions will be offered in many secondary school specialties, while there will be no positions for preschool or primary school teachers, but there will be positions for Therapeutic Pedagogy (TP), Hearing and Language (AL), and English. In Ibiza, the call will include positions in all specialties, while in Menorca, only positions for PT, English, and Primary school will be open. In Formentera, there will only be positions for preschool teachers. According to union sources, the forecast is that around 640 positions will be open for competition. The list of specialties, with the new additions of Japanese and flamenco singing, can be found below.

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The Balearic Islands are the Spanish region with the highest proportion of unfilled vacancies in this year's secondary and vocational education competitive examinations, at 54.9%, according to the CSIF union. This year's teaching competitive examinations for secondary and vocational education have left 3,818 of 15,947 vacancies unfilled across Spain, a "serious problem" for the new academic year, as it means that 23.8% of the state's vacancies have not been awarded. These are data compiled by CSIF, whose president, Mario Gutiérrez, denounces the fact that "a quarter of the competitive examination places have been left unfilled, which in itself is serious." "But if you add to this a temporary employment rate above 30%, a shortage of staff in certain specialties, and the low attractiveness of new teaching graduates, this denotes a very serious problem for the Spanish education system," he explained in statements to EFE.

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The shortage of teachers is one of the main problems of the islands' education system, compounded by the increase in student numbers and their needs. In the 2025 teaching competitions, only 55% of places have been filled, according to data from the SIAU union. However, the difference between the islands is abysmal. 100% of the places in Mallorca (8) have been filled; 88% of those in Menorca (32); but only 40% of those in Ibiza (40 of 98); and 37.5% of those in Formentera (3 of 8). Only 43% of the teaching positions offered in the Pitiusas have resulted in a permanent position.

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People who decide to apply for the teaching exams, both in the Balearic Islands and throughout Spain, must be willing to travel back in time. The reason is simple. The syllabus for the Early Childhood stage, for example, dates back to 1993 and includes a topic that, now, in the 21st century, and at a time when gender boundaries are increasingly invisible, would be controversial: "Sexual education in the early childhood stage. Discovery and identification with the same sex. Educational tools to avoid gender discrimination." Sources from the stage consulted by ARA Baleares assure that even when these syllabuses were developed, 32 years ago, the aforementioned section was obsolete. "I've been in Early Childhood all my life, and we've never worked with children on gender roles, for no reason," asserts a professional with more than 37 years of experience.

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