While members of the CNTE teachers’ union met yesterday with federal education officials to discuss civics classes in public schools, teachers from another union were vandalizing government offices in Acapulco.

The Guerrero teachers ransacked the offices as part of continuing demands for the repeal of the 2013 education reforms.

According to Education Secretary Esteban Moctezuma, the seventh meeting between federal authorities and CNTE leaders yesterday in Mexico City was the first time that the two parties have discussed potential changes to curriculum, such as civics, physical education and environmental science classes, with any substance.

Also substantial was the violent attack on the state’s finance department offices by teachers belonging to the CETEG, a Guerrero-based teachers’ union.

Hooded teachers armed with sticks stormed the offices, demanding that employees exit the building before proceeding to break glass in windows and doors, spray-paint the walls and burn chairs and government documents on the sidewalk outside.

The teachers also blocked the Miguel Alemán boulevard for two hours using four public buses before moving on to commandeer a toll booth on the Cuernavaca-Acapulco highway for another two hours.

In contrast, Moctezuma expressed satisfaction with the CNTE meetings, saying they helped clarify doubts about the curriculum laid out in the education reform.

“We believe that the [CNTE leadership] is truly interested in bettering many things in public education, and we want to cooperate so that anyone who has anything to say about public education in Mexico has a space to do so.”

Upon leaving the meeting yesterday, a legal advisor to the government told reporters that federal authorities “are very close” to an agreement with the teachers, who have been demanding the complete abrogation of the previous government’s education reforms.

Reaching agreements with the CNTE has been an objective for many previous governments — federal and state — but no accord has ever completely satisfied the union, renowned for its annual strikes and blockades.

Source: El Financiero (sp)