Photo @ Página 3
On 14 and 15 November, there was held the national exam on teachers’ knowledge, abilities, and competencies that forms part of the performance evaluation. According to the Teachers’ Professional Docent, 40,303 teachers participated in 25 states of Mexican, comprising almost 97.8% of all teachers. Following this first performance evaluation, protests raged in at least 10 states, and the Minister for Public Education (SEP), Aurelio Nuño Mayer, decided to dismiss the state delegates from Durango, Tlaxcala, Sonora, Zacatecas, and Morelos, after carrying out the first assessment of the evaluation.
In Chiapas, teachers affiliated with the National Coordination of Educational Workers (CNTE) mobilized from 13-15 November in marches wherein more than 30,000 teachers participated. The CNTE teachers indicated that their demands are very clear: “suspension of the educational reform, rejection of punitive evaluations, and liberation for our political prisoners.” With this last comment, they made reference to the 4 Oaxacan teachers who were arrested and transferred to the Federal Center for Social Readaptation in Altiplano, Mexico State, in October. Amidst these protests, the evaluations were pushed back until December in Chiapas.
In Michoacán, 5,000 police arrived to the capital Morelia to guarantee that the exam take place on 21-22 November. It was reported that the federal agents came prepared with anti-riot equipment, shields, and helmets, beyond their weapons.
In Oaxaca, Governor Gabino Cué Monteagudo sent his general secretary of governance, Alfonso Gómez Sandoval Hernández, to present the V Report of the State Government to the congress. The absence of the governor had to with the fact that Section 22 of the National Union of Educational Workers (SNTE-CNTE) planned to mobilize at the site where the report was to be presented. As such, it was surrounded by nearly 2,000 state and federal police.
In other news, Section 22 of the SNTE-CNTE made public the agreements it had made at the Broad National Representative Assembly (ANRA) on 18 November in Mexico City. Representatives declared that on 26 November, in observance of a global day of action for Ayotzinapa and Mexico, the teachers participated in a march in the city, at the end of which they installed an indefinite sit-in for the relatives of the 43 student-teachers from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, to pressure the government to implement the recommendations made by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR). Beyond this, on 14 and 15 November they plan to march in the national caravan to Altiplano to demand the release of the politically imprisoned teachers. Lastly, they called on the secretary of public education, Aurelio Nuño, to hold a public debate with the CNTE.
For more information (in Spanish):
Maestros se manifestaron el fin de semana (Chiapas Paralelo, 16 de noviembre de 2015)
Cué termina como Ulises Ruiz: acorralado por el magisterio y blindado por fuerzas estatales y federales (Página 3, 16 de noviembre de 2015)
Acuerdan maestros movilizaciones y debate con la SEP (Libertad Oaxaca, 19 de noviembre de 2015)
Remueve la SEP a 5 delegados (Reforma, 18 de noviembre de 2015)
Arriban a Michoacán 5 mil policías para garantizar evaluación docente (Proceso, 19 de noviembre de 2015)
Acuden a evaluación más de 40 mil maestros de 25 entidades (Proceso, 16 de noviembre de 2015)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Oaxaca: Low participation in teachers’ performance evaluation (26 December 2015)
Guerrero: Teachers in Acapulco successfully sabotage educational evaluation (26 December 2015)
Guerrero: Teacher from Acapulco dies after violent repression of a protest by the Federal Police (10 March 2015)
National: Thousands of teachers march against the educational reform (4 October 2013)
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