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| Dissident teachers block southbound lanes of major highway (Mexico City Metro trains run in the middle) Photo:Cuartoscuro (Demonstration was also observed from the office of Mexico Voices) |
Aristegui Noticias: Members of the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE), repudiated the agreement reached by their leaders with the Secretariat of Government Relations last week and threatened new demonstrations and blockades in Mexico City.
The membership of the dissident teachers organization rejected moving negotiations on the education reform to the states, while 2,000 teachers from the Guerrero State Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CETEG) joined the encampment at the Monument to the Revolution.
Yesterday, as part of their protests, teachers from Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, Guerrero and Quintana Roo affected traffic throughout the morning in the south and central zones of the city with a march on the Calzada de Tlalpan [major southbound highway] and threatened to intensify their protests in the coming days.
On October 3, the Under Secretary of Government Relations, Luis Enrique Miranda, and CNTE leaders reached an agreement in principle that included taking up the teachers demands in negotiations at the state level, with the Secretariat as a mediator, and with full respect for the labor rights of workers.
MV Note: The new education laws, which went into effect on September 12, state that teachers who fail a standardized national evaluation three times will not be fired, but will be moved to non-teaching positions in the education system or offered retirement. The teachers want to have an evaluation that is customized to each state's characteristics, that is used only for guiding teachers' training and cannot be used to remove them from their teaching positions, which have been permanent, "for life" appointments.Francisco Bravo, secretary general of Section 9 in the Federal District [Mexico City], said in an interview that the proposal was rejected by fourteen assemblies: Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Mexico City, Baja California, Chiapas, Veracruz, Baja California Sur, Tlaxcala, Puebla, Morelos, Campeche, Tamaulipas and Durango. (With information from Reforma) Spanish original