Jose Reveles
With more than a century of existence, the National Union of Parents (founded in 1917) returned to intervene in the educational life of the country in 2023 to oppose, for ideological and supposedly methodological reasons, the distribution of textbooks that the government has designed and edited for free since the sixties.
Aided by the denunciation of the “communist virus” that permeated its contents, according to TV Azteca and its driver Javier Alatorre, influenced with this anti-communist thesis, before even knowing its contents, to convince at least four opposition governments in as many states, to refuse to distribute the books published by the Ministry of Public Education federal.
Before reading the texts, many organizations, politicians, opposition governments and conservative groups joined TV Azteca’s version of an alleged conspiracy “that seeks to turn children into submissive slaves,” forged by “outdated communists, such as the director of Educational Materials of the SEP, Marx Arriaga, and the undersecretary Luciano Concheiro”, who even brought from Venezuela the former Chavista official Sady Arturo Loaiza Escalona.
“Communists promote contempt for culture, work, religion, even family in the guides for teachers; They feel empowered and seek to generate violence and resentment among Mexicans. “They seek to end Mexico as we know it and condemn it to poverty, mediocrity and hatred.”
Supporter of the Cristero war in the 1920s, combative against socialist education in the 1930s, staunch opponent of the single and mandatory textbooks distributed by the government to primary schools since the 1960s, defender of religious education today. The UNPF has obtained judicial suspensions to try to prevent the distribution of a good part of some 100 million free books already printed by the SEP.
The third district judge in administrative matters of Mexico City, Yadira Medina Alcántara, issued a definitive suspension against the printing of the new basic education textbooks. The resolution of May 26, 2023 determines that “if the rules in question for the approval of plans and programs and free textbooks have not been observed, the printing and delivery of textbooks for the 2023-2024 school year will be suspended. and (the authorities) refrain from continuing with its editing and printing until the respective procedure provided for in the law has been observed.”
The Seventh Collegiate Court had already issued a provisional suspension in the same sense, which was challenged by the Ministry of Public Education. “If a child begins primary school without his textbooks, not only is his educational process affected, but it also facilitates the path to dropping out,” teachers said in response to the dispute between UNPF and the SEP.
Before the accusation of wanting to inoculate “the communist virus”, textbooks have historically been criticized from extreme conservatism for transmitting to students from an early age topics such as education and sexual diversity, abortion, reproductive freedom, defense from families other than traditional ones, adoption of minors by same-sex couples, respect and tolerance for members of LGBTIQ+ communities.
Although the pretext is the least important, as a strong controversy arose in the early nineties over the mention in books of topics such as the Tlatelolco student massacres in 1968 and the falconazo of 1971.
The Secretary of Public Education was Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León and his undersecretary was the former student leader Gilberto Guevara Niebla.
From the Senate, today the president of the Education Commission, the Morenoist Antares Vázquez, blamed the extreme right represented by the centenary UNPF for trying to deal a “soft blow” to humanist education through a well-orchestrated disinformation campaign against free textbooks for the 2023-2024 cycle which, he said, were designed by experts and the SEP itself consulted teachers, parents and pedagogy specialists.
The UNPF does not represent the majority of parents of Mexican children. When they opposed the creation of free textbooks, behind them was the defense that “purchased” books would be replaced and the businesses of private companies would be affected.
“Today the opposition took the opportunity to vilify and say that content was removed, that everything is wrong, that there was no consultation, that the processes for preparing the texts were not complied with.”
The National Union of Education Workers considered the threat to burn or destroy the new books already printed absurd. “We will defend the new free textbooks because they are a fundamental tool for social justice. They strengthen free, equitable and compulsory education and strengthen the human right to education.”
“From irresponsibility and misinformation we now move to political and cultural violence. He attacks academic freedom and critical thinking. Let no political force, ideological faction or interest group attempt to turn public schools and education into the field of their disputes. Free textbooks are a historic achievement and a public policy that should be left out of partisan disputes,” the SNTE concluded in a statement.*Journalist and writer
2023-09-23 01:45:28
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