The battle for textbooks turns into trench warfare
The Defense Committees of the New Mexican School (CoDeNEM) are raising their barricades. They have just announced that they will install organizational structures throughout the country, a mobilization that has a clear objective: to support the educational model and free textbooks. But his declaration of war goes further.
In a position that sounds like an ultimatum, they directly accused the head of the SEP, Mario Delgado Carrillo, of acting as if he “owned” the agency. They are not words in the air. It is the spark that could set the educational landscape on fire.
A former official leads the rebellion
The general assembly was headed by Marx Arriaga Navarro, none other than the former general director of Educational Materials of the SEP. Under his leadership, the organization defined its mission: the committees will be spaces to “instruct, agitate and organize.”
Translation: they are preparing for a prolonged confrontation in defense of what they call democratic, critical and popular education. And they have a specific demand on the table.
They demanded the dismissal of the Secretary of Education and other officials, whom they accuse of acting against the principles of the Fourth Transformation.
According to the committees, these officials would be hindering the full implementation of the educational model in schools and communities. It is a serious accusation that puts the entire government strategy in check.
The group presents the scenario as an epic dilemma: allow a regression in the educational project or mobilize to defend it. But they warn – with crude realism – that those who opt for the second route will face media criticism, social indifference and internal divisions.
For these committees, the New Mexican School is not just another program. They describe it as “a historic achievement of teacher struggles” and one of the main contributions of the Workerism to the national educational system.
Their final argument is forceful: according to them, this model recovers historical memory and promotes training with a democratic and social focus. Now it remains to be seen if this citizen mobilization manages to change the rules of the game or if it will remain another chapter in the eternal Mexican educational debate.
