Nearly 8,000 Foreign Assistants May Miss Out on Spanish Schools Over Fines Dispute. The program to bring foreign teaching assistants to Spanish schools is under threat. Major regions are demanding government assurances that no further fines will follow. A decision must be made by the end of June.
Plans to bring back 7,890 foreign language assistants to Spanish schools from October have been thrown into question. The reason is a conflict between the central government and the largest autonomous regions, which are demanding guarantees of protection from new fines imposed by the Labor Inspectorate. Last year, Valencia, Andalusia, and Aragon were already sanctioned a total of nearly 24 million euros because the assistants were not registered as employees and did not make social security contributions.
The situation is particularly acute in Andalusia and Valencia, where fines reached 15 and 5 million euros, respectively. As a result, only in Andalusia last summer, the arrival of 1,806 assistants was canceled, affecting around 300,000 students. According to teachers, the absence of assistants has negatively impacted the quality of language education: students lost the opportunity to practice English, French, Portuguese, and German with native speakers.
Regions with the largest number of assistants—Andalusia, Valencia, and Galicia—believe they have become hostages to disagreements between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labor. The former insists that assistants are participants in an educational exchange, not employees, while the latter claims that there is a labor relationship between the regions and the assistants. Meanwhile, the Labor Inspectorate fines only for those assistants who are financed by the regions, not the Ministry of Education, causing additional discontent locally.
The authorities of Andalusia and Valencia state that they cannot participate in the program without legal guarantees against new sanctions. Galicia also warns that it may withdraw from the program if the situation is not resolved. The Ministry of Labor, in turn, emphasizes that it cannot guarantee in advance the absence of new inspections: inspectors respond to citizen complaints and are obliged to review each case.
In Valencia, fines were imposed for 1,990 assistants who worked from 2021 to 2025, and in Andalusia—for hiring 448 non-EU citizens and failing to pay contributions. In Aragon, a €100,000 fine was canceled after appeals were considered. In Galicia, an inspection is still ongoing and no decision on a possible fine has been made.
The future of the program will be discussed at the next meeting of the sectoral conference on education. The regions must make a final decision on whether to continue participating in the program by the end of June. Court practice has so far not been in the regions’ favor: in Andalusia, a court ruled the relationship with assistants to be labor, not educational, and the decision has come into force.
The context of the situation highlights how acute the issues of the status of foreign specialists and the interaction between levels of government are in Spain. In other areas, regional authorities also face the need to coordinate their decisions with central agencies. For example, recently in Andalusia, authorities declared the building permit for the El Algarrobico hotel invalid, marking an important step in the longstanding conflict over the coastline (more on the El Algarrobico decision).
For reference: the language assistant program has been operating in Spain for more than 20 years and annually attracts thousands of young people from various countries. They help schoolchildren improve their language skills, but are not allowed to replace teachers or conduct lessons independently. The issue of assistants’ status and their employment arrangements remains a subject of dispute between agencies and regions.
