The Generalitat's Education Department has acknowledged calculation errors in the provisional merit list for 400 educational support jobs. The revised list will be published this Thursday. The incident has sparked criticism from Junts.
The Catalan Department of Education has confirmed significant errors in the calculation of merits for candidates in the provisional list of 400 Personal de Atención Educativa (PAE) positions. The department, led by Esther Niubó, plans to release a corrected version of the list this Thursday, following internal checks and communication with unions. The issue was first reported by Nació Digital and later confirmed by departmental sources.
This summer, the Education Department managed two separate processes for PAE staff. The first was a transfer competition, completed on July 24, which reassigned existing staff to new roles. After this process, 400 positions remained vacant and were subsequently offered through competitive exams. The provisional results, published on July 30, contained errors in the merit scoring, affecting the ranking of candidates for these posts.
According to official sources, the department has already informed unions about the mistakes. They emphasized that such procedural corrections are not unusual and insisted that the current situation is unrelated to last year's incident, when thousands of people were mistakenly assigned positions, forcing many to reorganize their lives. This time, the department stressed, only 400 candidates are involved, and the timeline for finalizing appointments remains unchanged.
The episode has drawn sharp criticism from Junts, with party secretary general Jordi Turull highlighting what he described as a recurring pattern of mismanagement in the education sector. Turull pointed to the department's ongoing difficulties, referencing the recent controversy over the Pisa report, which saw Catalonia excluded from the international assessment after 23% of students were omitted from the sample—far above the permitted 5%. The government was informed of this exclusion in March but only made it public at the end of July. President Salvador Illa later explained that the delay was due to an ongoing investigation into the circumstances.
Errors in public sector recruitment processes can undermine trust in the system and create uncertainty for candidates. In Spain, education sector hiring is highly regulated, with merit-based competitions determining access to permanent positions. Mistakes in these processes can lead to legal challenges and delays in filling essential roles in schools. The current incident adds to a series of administrative setbacks for the Catalan Education Department, which has faced scrutiny over transparency and management in recent years. Ensuring accurate and fair recruitment remains a priority for regional authorities, especially as schools prepare for the new academic year.
