The Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera, has stated that the shortage of teaching staff constitutes a "structural problem" on a global scale, although he has admitted that the housing situation in the Balearic Islands adds an extra difficulty when it comes to filling vacancies.
Vera expressed himself thus this Thursday in the Education and Universities Committee of the Parliament, at the request of the PSIB, where he has detailed the actions that the Government is carrying out to address the deficit of teachers.
In his speech, he referred to a Unesco report on teaching staff that warns that the schooling needs foreseen for 2030 will not be able to be met with the available active population.
At the same time, he remarked that the rising cost of housing prevents filling positions normally. In response, he has opted for economic incentives and for measures that facilitate the displacement of teachers to destinations classified as difficult to cover.
The minister added that decisions such as the reduction of the weekly working hours of teaching staff from 37.5 to 35 hours in public centers have favored the increase in staff.
Along these lines, he highlighted that the teaching staff of the public network currently totals 14,177 teachers, which implies, as he indicated, more than 1,100 additional teachers compared to the 2022-2023 academic year. In his opinion, this hourly redistribution has allowed for the reinforcement of tasks such as coordination, training, and pedagogical planning.
152.5 million to improve the teaching profession
During his appearance, Vera also stressed that the Government has allocated more than 152.5 million euros to improve the working conditions of teaching staff and to make "more attractive" the teaching profession.
Among the actions promoted, he highlighted the implementation of salary supplements for teachers working in Eivissa and Formentera, as well as specific incentives for positions that are particularly difficult to fill. These measures have an allocation of 18.3 million euros and, according to the minister, cover 3,712 positions throughout the Islands.
Vera has also defended initiatives to attract teaching staff from other autonomous communities and to reinforce the pools of interim teachers, among them the simplification of procedures to incorporate more than 5,000 applicants into the new lists for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Regarding teaching competitive examinations, she recalled that this year 630 positions have been offered and she valued the advancement of the exams to the month of May with the aim of facilitating the awarding of vacancies before the start of the next school year.
Debate on the mandatory nature of Catalan
In the question round, the deputy of Més per Menorca Joana Gomila has reproached Vera that the exceptionality of Catalan, as well as of the master's degree in teaching and other qualifications in hard-to-fill positions, is negatively impacting educational quality.
"They allow there to be teachers who do not understand the students or that there are students who cannot receive education in Catalan, when it is their right," the deputy criticized.
On the other hand, the PP parliamentarian Ana Isabel Curto has maintained that the combination of factors that explain the situation, such as housing, the cost of living, or the lack of specialists, forces the deployment of measures to "make the positions attractive."