"I am well and recovered," stated the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, this Thursday, in her first words after returning to work following a leave of absence. A medical leave that lasted two months and for which Niubó has now explained the reason. "I hadn't said it until now, but it was cancer, a thymic cancer, which is a gland located between the lung and the heart," the minister detailed in an interview with SER Catalunya, where she also said she hadn't made it public to protect her family and prevent them from suffering. Now, however, she states: "I feel a bit obligated to explain it, because other people may be going through similar processes."

The Catalan Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, has been discharged from the hospital after undergoing surgery this Monday at the Bellvitge University Hospital. She will remain on medical leave, but will recover at home for a few more weeks. The Department of Education announced last weekend that Niubó would need to step away from her duties for a period of time for medical reasons. The Minister has sent a message of thanks to the surgical and neurological professionals who assisted in her operation. "Now that I'm being discharged from the hospital after my surgery, I want to acknowledge and thank Bellvitge Hospital and each and every one of its professionals for the care they've given me. [...] They, along with the wonderful nursing team, are responsible for me being able to go home and continue my recovery.

Another setback for the Catalan government. After President Salvador Illa left the hospital on Friday to continue his recovery from osteomyelitis, which has forced him to take two weeks off, Education Minister Esther Niubó announced on Sunday that she will have to temporarily step down from her post for medical reasons. The Education Department explained the situation in a statement, saying that Niubó will undergo "surgery in the coming days and a subsequent recovery that will require her to delegate the management of the department for the next few weeks." The minister also explained in a statement published in X that after several medical tests, she will finally have to undergo surgery, which will entail "a necessary break." "For a few weeks, I will be forced to significantly reduce my daily activity. I need this time to fully recover and resume my work as soon as possible and in the best possible condition," the message reads. Niubó added that she is "in good spirits" and expressed "utmost confidence" in the medical team treating her. The Prime Minister, Salvador Illa, responded to Niubó's announcement a few minutes later with a message of support. Also in a post on X, he said: "Sending you all my love. I wish you a speedy recovery. Stay strong and keep your spirits up. We hope to see you soon!" No direct replacement

At this point, the Government does not foresee appointing a direct replacement to cover Niubó's duties while she is out of the public eye. According to the statement, the day-to-day operations of the Ministry will be handled by the three Secretaries of Education. Therefore, the department will be led by the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Vocational Training, Teresa Sambola, the Secretary of Vocational Training (FP), Francesc Roca Rosell, and the Secretary of Educational Improvement, Ignasi Giménez Renom, who assumed the position just three months ago. The three will assume the Minister's executive decisions. Regarding the Minister's functions and the department's representation, these will be assumed by the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau. For the past two weeks, Dalmau has coordinated the executive branch during Isla's convalescence, and she will still need to continue treatment for another eight weeks. The statement from the Department of Education adds that the public events that would normally be the responsibility of Minister Niubó will be carried out by all members of the Government while she is absent from her post.

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Vocational training (VT) classrooms reopened this Friday after the summer break, but they still had some empty seats. The VT registration period ended on September 8. with more than 15,000 vacancies (15,232), a figure that has been reduced over the days and with the arrival of live registration: in three days, 3,000 people have signed up and the number of empty seats has been reduced to 12,000. In August, 14,840 students did not have a placeto the studies they wanted.

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The independence movement took to the streets for the Diada with Catalan as the spearheadbut also with the open wound of the ruling by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that overturned the decree that protected language immersion in the classroom. All pro-independence parties and organizations protested against a resolution that the Government has already announced that it will tour, but it was the president of the ANC, Lluís Llach, who went a step further call to disobey herHowever, this option is not on the table for the Department of Education. And, for now, neither ERC, nor Comuns, nor Junts, the parties that, along with the PSC, endorsed the law in 2022 to protect Catalan in the classroom and combat the judicial imposition of the 25% Spanish language requirement, are lobbying in that direction. However, the response to the TSJC's decision and the Constitutional Court's verdict on this law, pending for months, will put this unity to the test.

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Leo the interview with the counselor after the botched allocation of places in the Department of Education. To begin with, it must be said that this Catalan word, botched job, is magnificent. Nyap means something unsuccessful, poorly done. It is said in Coromines that botching also means "to seize something violently, or suddenly." Nyap comes from naño, "a wound that someone gets as a result of a blow." All these connotations of something sudden, violent (given how it affects people), poorly done, clumsy, or dented could be applied to the subject of recent headlines.

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The Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Esther Niubó (Barcelona, 1980), spoke to ARA following the controversy over the allocation of places for the next academic year, with a teaching community that did not hesitate to express its displeasure.

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The Department of Education has reacted swiftly to the chaos it itself generated with the monumental error in allocating places for the next academic year. An error that has forced the process to start all over again: the rectification has been made in record time. Very well. But this is the only good news in the mess we've witnessed these past few days.

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The 2025/26 school year will start normally. This was confirmed by the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio. The head of the department stated that after the error that has invalidated the allocation of 57,000 places The teaching staff is concerned about "the intervention of a person who made a unilateral decision" that "violated regulations." Someone ignored the department's resolutions and caused "serious incidents": 800 positions that should have been filled by civil servants were instead reserved for temporary teachers. Following complaints from some teachers, the Education Department halted the process and will announce the new assignments early next week after working all weekend to resolve the situation. In total, some 3,000 teachers out of 57,000 candidates will see their assignments change. However, according to Niubó, it will be for the better: "Given the exclusion of these 800 positions, it will improve."

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Yet another academic year with poor results in the basic skills tests, which determine the academic level of Catalan students. The regional minister of Education and Vocational Training, Esther Niubó, announced this Thursday morning that this year's tests have not gone well either. "We are just finishing the study, but I can say that they will not be the results we would like either," she admitted during a conference at the Europa Forum Tribuna Catalunya.

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