Mexico City, June 25 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Thousands of dissident teachers took to the streets of Mexico City on Wednesday, declaring a 24-hour strike to protest against the education reform promoted by President Enrique Peña Nieto.
The protest follows a decision taken recently by the country's Supreme Court which stated the reform and the controversial teacher evaluation tests to be constitutional. The evaluation is the main source of anger from the CNTE teachers' union, which is an alternative to the mainstream national union SNTE.
TeleSUR Correspondent in Mexico, Eduardo Matinez, reported that at least 10,000 teachers have joined the strike, adding that other sections of the country have taken part in the protest for the first time. The march started in the capital's Revolution Monument, before going to the Senate and concluding at a rally in the Secretariat for Public Education (SEP) headquarters.
Last weekend, the SEP suspended teacher evaluations in the states of Oaxaca and Michoacan, following a series of protests and boycott threats by members of the CNTE.
Since 2006, teachers of the CNTE – considered as “radicals” by the government of Peña Nieto – have staged a number of protests in the impoverished and violent southeast states of the country, with millions of students affected by almost a decade of continuous protests. Teachers say the tests do not really measure teaching skills and do not take into account the special knowledge needed to teach in rural areas and indigenous communities.
