No administrative staff during enrolment: nine Madrid language schools overwhelmed

The problem affects Alcorcón, Aranjuez, Coslada, Embajadores, Las Rozas, Parla, Villaverde, San Blas and the Vallecas extension of the EOI de Moratalaz. These are nine of the region's 35 language schools, approximately one in four.

In Alcorcón, for example, only one of the four administrative posts remains filled. Its headteacher, Begoña Martín, has had to take on secretarial work while retaining her teaching and management responsibilities. The school estimates that it currently has around 200 fewer enrolments than it usually records in other years.

The situation is even more extreme at some of the affected schools. One management team says it has worked days of up to 12 hours to maintain service for students and puts the number of students missing compared with previous academic years at around 300. The schools fear that lower enrolment will ultimately result in fewer groups, the disappearance of certain levels and the redeployment of teachers.

September is especially delicate for the EOI. Classes officially began on 8 September, but a significant part of enrolment still takes place during this month. New registrations are accompanied by placement tests, group changes, withdrawals and places becoming available again.

The EOI de Embajadores is already publicly warning that the lack of administrative staff may cause delays greater than usual in certificates, academic records, transfers and other requests. At the same time, it continues to offer in-person enrolment for places that have been vacant since 4 September.

The problem has not just emerged either. In Villaverde, CC OO reports that an administrative absence has remained uncovered since December and that another post has been vacant for approximately a year and a half. The Asociación de Profesores de Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas de Madrid says that some centres have gone for more than a year without sufficient staff in their secretariats.

The Comunidad de Madrid maintains that the necessary posts have been advertised and that Education and Finance are seeking to fill absences and vacancies as quickly as possible. CSIF states that 217 administrative posts for public educational centres were offered at the end of August, 14 of which were for Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas, and expects them to be filled by interim civil servants.

While those appointments arrive, the most immediate consequence is at the schools' own service desks and offices. The same teams that should be organising timetables, teaching programmes and the start of the academic year are devoting part of their working day to administrative tasks, precisely when September decides how many students and groups each school will have over the coming months.