Madrid creates its own language-assistant plan after Ministry rejection

The measure affects more than 800 educational centres and thousands of pupils who receive language support within Madrid’s bilingual model. For many families, the presence of these assistants is part of the normal day-to-day running of English and other language classes.

The decision comes after weeks of uncertainty between administrations. According to the Department of Education, the state call for applications, which in other years was published in February, was delayed this time until the end of May, complicating planning for the next academic year.

The regional government tried to clarify the situation at the Sectoral Conference on 3 June. Madrid requested guarantees that the Ministry of Labour would not penalise regions that met the programme’s requirements, but the Ministry of Education’s final response was negative.

The regional government maintains that the rejection is based on technical reasons and that, faced with that impasse, it could not wait any longer to organise the academic year. It has therefore chosen to design its own route to allow language assistants to remain in schools.

The aim is for schools not to notice a gap in September. These professionals usually support teachers in speaking activities, conversation, pronunciation and classroom dynamics, especially in schools where bilingualism carries considerable weight in daily organisation.

Last academic year, regional investment in assistants exceeded 28 million euros. The new dedicated call will seek to sustain a role that Madrid considers essential to its educational model and to the continuity of the bilingual programme.

The change also means that schools must keep an eye on the deadlines. School leaders, teachers and families will need to know how many assistants will ultimately arrive, under what conditions and on what timetable, because their presence affects groups, timetables and activities.

Beyond the political clash, the issue reaches the classroom directly. The assistants do not replace teachers, but they do provide daily contact with speakers from other countries and help make language learning more natural and less confined to the textbook.

Madrid is now trying to prevent the administrative conflict from becoming a problem for schools. The real test will come at the start of the academic year, when schools see whether the new in-house plan guarantees the same coverage as before.