Chapter 9 - MINORCA TODAY
 

Administratively, Minorca today forms a Province of the Balearic Islands, which is one of the fifty autonomous provinces of  Spain. 
Each autonomous province has its own popularly-elected government and wide powers in areas such as education and culture.  National defence and foreign policy are controlled by Spain's national government, but many other areas of responsibility are shared by the national and regional governments.  Cities and towns have mayors and town councils, elected by popular vote. 
The provincial capital is at Palma in Majorca but, apart from official connections, Minorcans feel that for ethnic and historical reasons they have more kinship with Barcelona and Catalonia on the peninsula.
Minorca is sufficiently important to have a deputy civil governor who is resident on the island, with his headquarters in the Plaza Miranda (Delegacion Gobierno Civil), Mahon. He presides over a consultative body, a provincial assembly known as Consejo Insular (Island Council), which is elected by democratic vote.

  As Minorca could again be strategically important in a national emergency, it also has a military governor, whose residence and headquarters (Gobierno Militar) are in the Calle Isobel II in Mahon. He has no civil jurisdiction in time of peace, except in so far as he advises on military matters.
 

LANGUAGES

The statute recognizes both Castilian (Spanish) and the island's own version of Catalan as official languages of the autonomous community. The island's own versions of Catalan, are dialectic variations and are spoken with notable differences both between the islands and between towns within the same islands. 
 

SOCIAL SERVICES

Apart from the modern Military hospital on the outskirts of Mahon, the island has three civilian hospitals. These are the municipal hospitals at Ciudadela and Mahon, also Mahon has an additional hospital for insured private patients known as the Residencia Sanitaria.  Minorcan doctors are trained to a high standard, and routine major surgery is carried out at these hospitals. Advanced specialist surgery is carried out at Barcelona, where some branches (especially ophthalmology) have a worldwide reputation.
Minorcans share in the provisions of a state medical service, which is obligatory to lower-paid workers and their dependants, but is not as comprehensive as the British National Health Service. It is known as SOE, and is administered by a National Security Institute, which works in collaboration with mutual insurance societies and private agencies.
Sickness benefits are approximately 75 per cent of basic wages and dependant allowances, for thirty-nine weeks in a year. Hospitalisation and medicines in hospital are free up to twelve weeks. These limitations are clearly due to financial reasons. Many workers obtain longer benefit by contributing to one of the mutual societies. Minorcans who because of a high income fall outside the state scheme also insure privately. This covers hospital treatment, but not medicines.
Maternity benefits are comparatively generous, except for pre-natal care, which does not operate until the sixth month of pregnancy. However, it includes treatment in hospital and 75% of earnings for six weeks before and for six weeks after birth.

General practitioner service
This differs from the British practice, and is linked with a hospital outpatient consulting service. Contributors are allotted to hospital outpatient clinics where they are seen by the general practitioner on whose list they have been placed.
The proportion of doctors to population compares favourably with other European countries and with America. 

Social security payments
National insurance is compulsory, and covers the following contingencies: temporary absence from work, accidents, and assistance to dependants, permanent incapacity, widows' and old age pensions. Employee and employer jointly contribute the last.
 

EDUCATION

Minorcans today, with increasing international contacts, place a high value on the importance of education. They also equate education with culture. Schools conform to the general Spanish pattern, and are either state-controlled or private. Primary state education from the ages of six to fourteen takes place in the state primary schools and is free. Children are, however, accepted from the age of four, which is in effect analogous to the trend towards nursery schools in other Western countries, but for the most part the schools lack any special nursery facilities. In Minorca this early schooling is freely taken advantage of. In many villages there are one-teacher schools. School buses also transport country children to central schools, as in other countries.
At the age of ten, children either pass to a state secondary school or continue advanced primary education for another four years, until the age of fourteen. If they have been late developers these then have another chance of secondary education.
State secondary education is free, although the cost of books and other expenses can be high and is met by parents. Secondary school places are, however, often inadequate in the state schools, and private schools make up for lack of them. At secondary schools pupils attend a six-year course with annual examinations, leading to the final Bachillerato, which is the equivalent of the General Certificates of Education (GCSE  and AS-levels) in Britain. Further examinations are necessary for university entrance at Barcelona and elsewhere. An increasing number of senior pupils at Mahon and Ciudadela study. for their Bachillerato or university entrance at college evening classes. At the present time steps are being taken to increase these facilities, and a Balearic university is talked of.
For Minorcan children school usually begins at 8 am and goes on till 6 pm, except for the younger children. This includes a half hour morning break and two hours for lunch and rest. They have two free afternoons a week of which one is a Saturday. Football, basketball and running sports are organised. Summer holidays are long and, except for the youngest pupils, extend throughout the hot summer months from July until the end of September. In addition to three weeks at Easter and Christmas there are fiestas.
Higher education of youths is often interrupted by national military service, which lasts for three years. Girls do compulsory social work at social centres and, just to encourage them, they are not allowed driving licences or passports for foreign travel until they have completed it.
English is now taught as a second language in schools and, owing to tourism, adult classes are now also common. With the opening of St George's English School for general education, the knowledge of English has spread.

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