MEXICO CITY.- A new battlefield has now opened between the judiciary and the federal government over the preparation of textbooks for the 2023-2024 school year.
The National Union of Family Parents (UNPF) obtained a provisional suspension so that the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) and the National Free Textbook Commission (Conaliteg) could guarantee that they had followed legal provisions in the preparation of textbooks.
According to the group, the agencies involved did not comply with the provisions of the law due to the absence of programs supporting study plans and materials, apart from the fact that the required consultation with tutors and teachers was not implemented.
Yadira Elizabeth Medina Alcantara, the Third District Judge for Administrative Affairs in Mexico City, will decide on May 26 whether to grant the final suspension.
The same judge ordered the reinstatement of a full-time school schedule last September, allowing extended hours for students to drop off and include meals.
The National Association of Parents of Families demands that the textbooks be discontinued because it believes they are being designed “in a way”; They lack scientific, technical and educational bases as well as academic professionalism.
Furthermore, they argue, they were never even consulted and want to impose themselves on their children in violation of the Constitution.
The group opined, “We hold the executive responsible for the harm they want to do to our children because of their textbooks, which have not been approved by our society.”
“It is a reality that the educational authorities are working behind the backs of the Mexicans, because so far there is no place to review the contents of the textbooks, moreover, they have announced that they have already printed them , which violates our rights as parents of the family”.
The content of the free textbooks has been diagnosed by parents, experts and civic associations to which they have access, it has been established that poverty is excused and children are motivated.
Paulina Amazurutia, president of Educación Con Rambo, said they not only detected form errors in the texts, but also introduced elements.
Of planting.
“They teach first graders to organize assemblies and, for example, the point is that in a Spanish book there are references to pictures and idealized figures for presidents (Andrés Manuel López Obrador) like Felipe Ángeles, Pancho Villa. Well, it’s a weird mix”, he highlighted.
Francisco Landero, president of Suma por la Educación, assured that the SEP’s director of educational materials, Marques Arriaga, signed a confidentiality contract to force the people who design the textbooks not to transmit any type of information.
