\ 560 more teachers will make the 2022/23 academic year the largest ever in the history of the Balearic Islands
\ The application of the LOMLOE begins in infant, primary, secondary and baccalaureate courses.
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\ The IES Aurora Picornell is the first secondary school in the Balearic Islands, a secondary school that takes in primary school pupils.
\ 5,274 pupils from 2 to 3 years of age in 158 schools in the Islands start free of charge in the public and complementary network of schools.
The Regional Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Martí March, today presented the figures for the start of the new academic year 2022/23 in the Balearic Islands. He was accompanied by the Director General of Planning, Organisation and Centres, Antoni Morante, the Director General of Teaching Staff, Rafaela Sánchez, and the Director General of Early Childhood, Innovation and the Educational Community, Amanda Fernández.
Martí March highlighted the normality of the start of the new academic year after two years of living with the pandemic and reviewed the most important aspects of the new school term, which begins on 12 September.
New educational model
A total of 172,970 students (512 fewer than last year) will be studying in schools in the Balearic Islands in the 2022/23 academic year. Some of these students will begin the academic year with a new educational model derived from the application of the LOMLOE. This new model, based on teaching by competencies, which puts students at the centre of learning, will begin to be applied throughout the infant and lower primary, secondary and baccalaureate courses. In the 2023-2024 academic year, it will be incorporated in the rest of the school years.
The implementation of the new curricula will entail important changes in schools over the next few years that will affect the educational project, the curricular specification and the organisation and management of the school. The deadlines for starting this change in the education system are tight and, for this reason, the Regional Ministry has drawn up proposals for making tasks more flexible in the short, medium and long term. The aim is to accompany schools in this process of educational transformation and to facilitate the task to be carried out as much as possible.
Since last March, a total of 1,500 teachers from some 475 schools have been trained in the design of learning situations. During this academic year, teachers will continue to be trained through the in-school training courses organised by the 7 territorial CEPAs on all the islands. 1,440 teachers at all levels have also attended the webinars, which are recorded and available to all teachers on the Regional Ministry’s website (snlf.caib.es). During the academic year, there will also be training sessions on the Baccalaureate research work, which will also be incorporated into the Distance Learning (FaD) programme.
In addition, schools can ask for face-to-face advice from the Educational Planning Service technicians for the process of adapting to the new regulations.
All the information on the Balearic curricula, learning situations and a section on frequently asked questions can be consulted on the website of the Directorate General for Planning, Organisation and Centres: tn.caib.es/Curriculums.
More teachers than ever
Unlike the last one, the new academic year begins with total normality and without COVID measures. Despite this, not only is the number of teachers not reduced but it is increased by 560 teachers. This means that the Balearic classrooms will have the highest number of teachers in history, 16,870.
It should be noted that since 2015 the number of teachers in the Balearic Islands has grown by more than 3,000 teachers between public and subsidised (2,500 in public and 400 in subsidised). In total, with the places awarded during the competitive examinations held in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022, 3,462 places have been stabilised, most of them for interim teachers. In the coming years, it is expected that around 2,500 more places will be made available. The aim of the Conselleria is to continue holding competitive examinations in 2023 and 2024 and to reduce the percentage of interim teachers to around 8% of the total. This will make it possible to achieve the provisions of the new Decree-Law on urgent measures to reduce the temporary nature of public employment recently approved in Madrid. In order to achieve this objective, it is expected that around 6,000 vacancies will be open to competition between 2017 and 2023.
The constant increase in the number of teachers and the improvement of infrastructures has made it possible to lower and maintain ratios in the Balearic Islands below the national average. By way of example, in the 21-22 academic year in public education, 99% of infant education groups, 93% of primary education groups, 99% of secondary education groups and 100% of baccalaureate groups were below the maximum ratios. The ordinary ratios established by law are 25 pupils in primary, 30 in secondary and 35 in baccalaureate. It is worth noting that in the Balearic Islands the average at all levels of education is below the legal minimum.
The first secondary school in the Balearic Islands
In the 2018-2019 academic year, the Government of the Balearic Islands launched a pilot programme to offer ESO in primary schools, which was applied in two schools: CEIP Son Quint and CEIP Pintor Joan Miró. From this academic year 2022-2023, two more centres will join this project: CEIPIESO Gabriel Vallseca, which will change from being a primary school to also offering ESO, and CEIPIESO Aurora Picornell, which will be the first IES to offer primary education. These two schools are also located in Palma.
Pupils in the 2-3-year-old classrooms with free education
The 2022/23 school year begins with the start of free schooling for children aged 2-3 years. To make this measure possible, it is planned to invest 18.6 million euros per school year, so that both public schools and those in the complementary network will receive a contribution of 45,000 euros for each 2-3-year-old classroom. This investment will cover the running costs of these classrooms during ordinary school hours for this educational stage, a minimum of 4 hours for ten months, which means an expenditure of 2,500 euros per pupil.
A total of 5,274 pupils aged 2-3 years old in 158 schools on the Islands are expected to be reached. The modules will cover the cost of 293 2-3 classrooms in public schools and the complementary network. In the 2022-2023 school year, there will be 184 educational centres for 0-3-year-olds, of which 108 are public and 50 are private, integrated into the complementary network.
In addition to free education for the 2-3 year-olds, an increase is also planned for the 0-1 and 1-2-year-old modules, which means achieving 10,000 euros/unit in the public network (up to now it was 7,000 euros) and 5,000 euros/unit in the complementary network (up to now it was 2,000 euros).
The aim is to continue promoting the first cycle of infant education by increasing the supply of first cycle infant education through calls for aid for the creation of public places in first cycle infant education and the conversion of centres that regularly care for children under three years of age without educational authorisation into first cycle infant education centres, favouring accessibility for pupils from vulnerable families through schooling grants, grants for children with special educational needs and canteen grants, and pedagogical support and training in public and complementary education centres and the expansion and consolidation of early childhood care teams.
More aid for canteen, books and nursery schools
In order to deal with possible increases in families’ socio-economic difficulties due to the international and economic situation, the investment in aid for morning school has been reinforced, with a budget of 1 million euros, which is 250,000 euros more than last year. This aid is part of the Balearic Islands’ Reconciliation and Joint Responsibility Plan and is financed by the Ministry’s Joint Responsibility Plan. Schooling grants are also planned for vulnerable pupils in 0-1 and 1-2 years of age.
For the 2022/23 academic year, an investment of 8 million euros has been planned, the highest in the history of the Balearic Islands, with the aim of meeting the requests of as many families as possible.
In addition, the allocation for the financing of textbooks has also been increased, which means a total of 2,858,760 euros with a maximum of 25,000 euros per centre. This is 688,392 euros more than last year.
Boosting digitisation
During the 2022/23 academic year, schools must draw up their own Digital School Plan, which structures the technological development of each school to make it digitally competent and incorporates pedagogical, organisational and technological aspects.
On the other hand, numerous training actions will continue to be organised to provide teachers with the appropriate digital competence and to facilitate digital accreditation at the different levels established by European regulations. So far, 128 training sessions have been held and 13,008 training certificates have been issued by IBSTEAM.
To make this whole process possible, the centres will have an IBSTEAM advisor. To this end, the number of IBSTEAM digital advisors has been increased to a total of 35 (4 in Ibiza, 27 in Mallorca and 4 in Menorca).
On the other hand, the purchase of 5,000 digital classrooms has already been put out to tender for 18.9 million euros from the cooperation funds. A digital classroom installation is a piece of technological equipment that allows teachers and students to interact with digital content in the classroom, from home or with other centres. The digital classrooms will be accompanied by specific training for capacity building and support endowed with 436,089 euros in addition to the previous 18.9 million euros.
These are all actions of the Programme funded by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and by the European Union-NextGenerationEU, in the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan Facility with an investment of almost €30 million.
High level of implementation of the Education Infrastructure Plan
It should be noted that in the Balearic Islands as a whole, since September 2015, more than 100 million euros have been invested in 1,800 actions in 95% of educational centres.
This summer, 64 works have been carried out in 60 educational centres in the Balearic Islands for a value of more than 10 million euros.
These interventions are part of the 2016-23 Educational Infrastructure Plan, which has enabled the improvement of educational infrastructures in the Balearic Islands to be planned in an orderly and equitable manner. Work is currently underway on the 2023-2027 Infrastructure Plan.