Mexico: The Issues Behind the Seizure of National University Administration Building

Entrance to the Rectory, administrative building of National University. Mural is work of David Siqueiros
Photo: Tania L. Montalvo

CNN Mexico: Mexico City - Students of faculties and schools affiliated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) have, for seven days, come to the Rectory Tower [administration building] with the same question: why are those, who since last Friday have been preventing access to the most important administrative building of the university, protesting?

"Against the Twelve Points of Reform" respond all members of the group of masked youth who have taken the property and been demanding a dialogue with the rector, José Narro Robles.

The famous Twelve Pints are a proposal for educational reform of the system of the Colleges of Sciences and Humanities [high schools that are part of UNAM], composed of campuses in Atzcapotzalco, Vallejo, East, South and Naucalpan, the last being the site where the conflict originated last February, which led to the recent taking of the Rectory [in University City, UNAM's main campus].

According to the document issued by UNAM and the administration of CCH, the proposal submitted last year consists of:

1. Redefining the goals for graduates, resolving deficiencies in general knowledge in mathematics and Spanish. [MV Note: 50% of Mexican middle school graduates are deficient in reading and math. Only 50% of high school age youth attend high school]

2. Updating the curricula of CCH, based on "the social context and advances in the field of technology, science and humanities."

3. Training and upgrading teachers to "have a strong disciplinary knowledge and training in the fields of teaching, educational psychology, ethics and technology".

4. Setting curricular requirements in physical education, to "promote the integrated development of the student."

5. Increasing English language studies to three years, because in the current curriculum it is taught for only four semesters.

6. Strengthening French language instruction as a foreign language to "provide students with more extensive training."

7. Adapting requirements in the third year, so that only seven subjects are taken, with only English and philosophy being compulsory and the rest shall be elected by the students from a group of electives.

8. Establishing a schedule of classes running from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, in two shifts.

9. [Establishing] Class lengths of 1.5 hours.

10. Optionally, providing the ability to re-take courses through online classes and tutorials with the presentation of a final test in the presence of a teacher.

11. Developing online courses to support regular, remedial and preparatory courses for the degree.

12. Incorporating a course in the first semester called "Strategies for Learning to Learn".

In a statement issued on Saturday, a group of university students supporting those holding the rectory said,

"It is a reform that prepares students to serve corporate systems and doesn't promote knowledge and critical thinking, avoiding opportunities where students can discuss and organize themselves."

According to the protesters who have taken the Rectory Tower, in the Twelve Points of Reform

"education which generates critical thinking is reduced, because it privileges subjects like English."

Another argument is that the extended hours will limit access to education, as fewer young people will enter the CCH, and it "will serve fewer students for a longer time period," said a student of philosophy at the UNAM who has joined the protesters.

The group believes this is a reform that was made "without the opinion of the students, which caused us to come to extreme measures" such as taking the building in University City.

"It modifies the critical, humanist profile of students for one that is more technical and responds only to the demands of the market; the profile is so that students become more technical," said an engineering graduate who has decided to join the protest that began on Friday, April 19.

According to another hooded youth, who identified himself as a student of Psychology, initially the seizure was only by students from CCH, but a week later, there are more than 30 from different schools within the university.

The protest against the reform began in the CCH campus in Naucalpan in February, when a conflict within the institution led to the arrest of students who were accused of beating staff and vandalizing the offices. As a result, five youth were expelled. ... Spanish original