Women Teachers in Mexico Protest New Restrictive Education Law Katherine Ronderos - Women News Network
go to original October 5, 2013

Women teachers, many who have come from far away distances to the capital city to march in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City, protest against  Mexico’s new restrictive evaluation education law on September 4, 2013. (Andrés Tonini)

MEXICO CITY - Excluded from the debate on educational reform, women teachers in Mexico, who represent more than 96 percent of teachers in preschool, 66 percent in basic education and 51 percent in secondary school, are protesting against a new law that will affect them negatively, especially those working in rural and indigenous communities.

Mainly women teachers in the states of Veracruz, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Chiapas (Mexico) went on strike while more than 30,000 teachers from some of the country’s poorest states moved into Mexico City and set up camp in the Zócalo, the city center, for three weeks in September. They are protesting en masse after the government pushed through “secondary” laws aimed at reforming the Education Act, in particular aspects related to teachers’ careers. They are demanding that the government moderate its education reforms.

Oaxaca women teachers of section 22 of the National Education Workers’ Co-ordinating Committee (CNTE), a national teachers union, have left their children, communities and homes behind to claim their labor rights in Mexico City, determined to continue fighting the injustice that keeps them marginalized.

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