The federal government said on Oct. 19 that it will comply with a court order against the implementation of its new curriculum model. 

Public Education Minister Leticía Ramírez said that a pilot program for the new curriculum, which was slated to commence later this month, will be temporarily suspended. 

The program was scheduled to begin in 960 schools across all 32 federal entities this week, but the organization Educación con Rumbo (Education with Direction) successfully challenged the curriculum model, arguing that it violates the constitution. 

Ramírez said that the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) has initiated its own legal action and expects a favorable outcome soon. 

Although the pilot program won’t commence this week, training for preschool, primary school and secondary school teachers on the implementation of the new curriculum will continue, the education minister said.    

The government is seeking to overhaul the way in which students are taught in Mexican schools. 

The Reforma newspaper reported earlier this year that the new education model is characterized by its promotion of a community rather than global outlook, its elimination of concepts considered to be neoliberal (a dirty word, according to President López Obrador) and its support for teachers’ educational autonomy.  

Marx Arriaga, SEP’s director of education materials, has already overseen a process to develop new textbooks that confine neoliberalism to the dustbin of history. 

He said in April that the new curriculum model will place much greater emphasis on sharing and the common good rather than pitting individual students against each other. The model will be “libertarian” and “humanist” and put an end to racism in the education system and “standardized tests that segregate society,” he said.  

With reports from Animal Político and El Financiero