Shortage of teachers denied by minister

FRANCESC Fiol, regional minister for Education and Culture, gave assurances yesterday that there is no lack of teaching staff in Balearic schools and emphasised that the level of investment that has been made by the government this school year has been “higher than ever”. Fiol was replying in Parliament to a question from the United Left/Green Party deputy, Miquel Ramon, who was criticising the fact that the number of pupils in Balearic classrooms surpassed the national average and that the schools were understaffed. Ramon claimed that there had been centres which had failed to open at the official beginning of term and that according to his own estimates, one in every three centres of Infant and Primary education were still undergoing remedial building work. He also reproached the centre right regional government for allegedly having increased funding to state-assisted schools whilst problems still persisted in state schools. Fiol replied that the beginning of term had been staggered over a number of days and that there had been no incidents of note. He said that any difficulties with building work will be finalised during the first few weeks of the new academic year.