Mexico daily news, Dec.17

Posted by The Generals on December 20, 2012, 6:03 pm
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Subject: Mexico News DAILY December 17, 2012 Mexico PRD unsure about Peña Nieto’s education reform Development: On 16 December the secretary general of the leftist Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), Alejandro Sánchez Camacho, said that he was opposed to President Enrique Peña Nieto’s education reform on the grounds that its goal is to “privatise the sector”. Significance: Though PRD president, Jesús Zambrano, signed the ‘Pact for Mexico’ agreement committing the party to collaborating with the new Peña Nieto government on key reforms, other PRD leaders are proving less amenable. Sánchez made his comments after the PRD’s national party congress (14-16 December), at which the party discussed its political strategy for the coming term. Key points: • Sánchez acknowledged that the reform contained some positive points but stressed that many issues needed to be clarified – including the proposed participation of “private interest groups”. He noted that “the direct intervention of groups foreign to education and close to personal interests, such as Mexicanos Primero, forces us to question their presence”. A non-profit civil organisation created in 2005 to promote quality education, Mexicanos Primero has been identified in the proposal as a potential collaborator for the revamped national institute for educational assessment and evaluation (INEE). Sánchez called on all political parties to reflect on this and not to “rush” the approval of the proposal until its “real objectives” have been clarified. • The dissident teachers’ union, CNTE, has already raised concerns about a covert privatisation of the sector. Unlike the sector’s main union, SNTE, the CNTE wholly opposes education reform. The CNTE was scheduled to hold its own national congress in Morelia, Michoacán, on 16 December to discuss the reform proposal; but the congress was suspended after nine CNTE members were arrested by local police for “disorderly conduct” after they were found urinating on the street.

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