Spain has never had so many teachers in schools and institutes. However, the 826,572 teachers who will teach this year throughout the state are insufficient. And this year, there are expected to be fewer students in secondary school than last year, even though the FP is out of control. But the problem is not the increase in the number of students.
It is not widespread – many specialties are in surplus – but it exists throughout the territory. It is not even a problem specific to Spain, but it goes beyond borders. In Europe, only Croatia and Cyprus have not reported a shortage of teachers, according to a report by the European Commission. The world needs 44 million teachers for the next five years, estimates UNESCO.
This happens especially in technical subjects, but not only. Mathematics in secondary school, with excerpts in French or Latin. Catalan in Catalonia. Computer science and Electricity and Electronics in vocational training, a stage in which some groups spent months without a teacher last year, with incorporations until January. This year, it does not seem that the situation will improve.
The CSIF estimated this week that there is a shortage of 45,778 teachers in the system. According to the union’s accounts, these are the teachers who would be needed to maintain the student-teacher ratio (and not per class) that existed in 2010 (13.87, the current one is 14.63). “This translates, among other things, into a lack of resources and support, specialists in all subjects and complete guidance teams,” the organization estimates.
This deficit speaks of reinforcements, deployment, elements to improve educational quality and offer a more optimal service. It is not a small matter, but the lack of specialists in certain areas and stages does not prevent us from aiming for an improvement of the system; it directly prevents teaching the courses. The shortage situation is such that in the specialties of many communities, the simple fact of presenting oneself to the exams to sign and thus enter the pool of temporary workers is assured that sooner or later work will be done during the course.
Well, we delete the master
That is why some communities are lowering the mandatory requirements to teach in certain subjects. At least the Valencian Community, Extremadura, La Rioja, Castilla-La Mancha, the Canary Islands, Murcia, Andalusia and Castilla y León asked the Ministry of Education last year to allow graduates without a teacher’s degree (required to teach) to teach exceptionally when the provisional pools were exhausted, according to CCOO.
This course, at least the Valencian Community has already done so: it has offered offers in computer science and computer systems and applications without requiring a master’s degree, although candidates must commit to taking it before June 2026. In Catalonia, the ministry is also offering it temporarily. The conditions for access to temporary pools are relaxed, government sources explain, and they offer additional remuneration to make these specialties more attractive.
These exceptions originated in the pandemic, when the divisions aimed at reducing the number of students per class to increase the distance between them put the shortage of teachers on the table. The Ministry then approved a Royal Decree by which it allowed the regional departments of Education (which are the ones that recruit) to “appoint exceptionally (…) also candidates for the requested specialties who do not meet the requirements”. this time with the requirement of having the official title of postgraduate pedagogical and didactic training”, according to its article 2. But this exception was limited: “His commitment (…) may not in any case be extended beyond the completion of the process in which the competent authorities determine that the extraordinary circumstances derived from the pandemic generated by Covid-19 have ceased to exist.
The measure is controversial. Teachers’ unions and some specialists warned at the time, and insist today, that the importance of pedagogical and disciplinary didactic training is underestimated by removing this requirement. “Teachers must be trained, a graduate cannot come to teach students with certain characteristics, such as adolescents, who need attention, have needs that the teacher must know and respond to, and that are provided by training”, summarizes Héctor Adsuar, director of public functions of the teachers’ federation CCOO.
Mathematics is suffering
In secondary schools, the problem is particularly serious with mathematics and computer science teachers. The sources consulted clearly indicate that this is mainly due to the change in the consideration of these professionals in the private sector. Until not long ago, teaching was a natural outlet for mathematicians, but in recent years, companies are integrating them into their ranks and they are finding better conditions there, as confirmed by the Spanish Committee of Mathematics (CEMat) in the diagnostic study on mathematical competence in Spain.
“Despite the notable increase in the number of mathematics students in recent years, graduates of this degree do not meet the demand for teachers in this subject. Currently, the tension between education and companies is shifting in favor of the latter; it would be desirable to carry out a study quantifying the effects that this phenomenon produces on the educational system. Today, the teaching profession is not the preference of graduates and does not constitute an attractive option for them,” it can be read.
Professionals clearly understand why, beyond the evidence that education cannot compete in terms of salaries with private companies. “As long as the conflict situation in the classroom is not resolved (high ratio, students with special educational needs, etc.), as long as the teacher does not have an adequate teaching schedule to do this work, those who want to dedicate themselves to this profession will look for another way out,” reflects Goyo Muro, head of public education at the CCOO of Castilla La Mancha. “There are those who try to teach, they see the situation, how much worse it is, and they leave. There has been a very big change in the last ten years. You talk to teachers and they tell you that in the last decade it has been very difficult to maintain the job. In the classrooms, you often survive from day to day.
The sector cannot be competitive either in economic conditions or in stability. “As a teacher, you do the interim, but it can take a while before you have stability. One year you are in one institute, another in another… Nobody guarantees you anything,” adds Luis García, president of the Association of FP Centers and director of Madrid.
Dying of success in PF
The FP is dying of success. The central and regional governments have invested heavily in this stage as a solution to school dropouts and the lack of mid-level technical professionals in the Spanish labor market. The bet is paying off and more and more people are enrolling in vocational training (then we have the problem of the lack of public places, but that is another topic). However, this increase in the demand for training is colliding with the supply of education.
At this stage the stars (for the worse) These are computer science and electricity and electronics, two families with two branches each. “We have been seeing this for four or five years and we cannot grow because we cannot find staff,” laments García. These centers are also “relaxations” – a euphemism for “removal” – of the requirements for certain profiles when the paths in accordance with the law have been exhausted.
In your case, at least, the new FP law offers a solution, although it remains to be developed: expert teachers. This figure is designed in the image and likeness of the University’s associate professors (at least in the initial spirit). They are professionals who are experts in their field and who come to a center to teach a few hours a week in parallel with their main activity. For García, it is “a good solution”, just as it is better to have someone who is an expert in a subject or in the handling of certain machines even if he does not have a master’s degree, rather than a professor from another specialty who has taken it.
“Technical competence is more important than methodological competence, which, although the other is also important to me, is more important. “I need someone who knows how to handle machinery, with programming or similar issues, I will help you,” he argues, aware that vocational training has particularities (specific machinery, etc.) that distinguish it from high school.
Thus, says García, it is common for the centers to have to earn a living and call the companies they collaborate with for internships looking for staff capable of teaching a few hours. Since these are also very attractive training cycles in the labor market, there is more demand, which aggravates the problem, adds García.
The lack of teachers is also influenced by the lack of places in the secondary education master’s degree, recalls the director of FP: more than half of the places offered come from private universities, with the economic barrier that this represents for many candidates.
