Speaking in Guadalajara this week, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto vowed to “push ahead” with the national teacher evaluation program in a bid to improve the nation’s flagging educational standards.
“It’s a model that benefits everyone, teachers and students the same, and for this reason we will not be turning back,” Peña Nieto said at the start of the 16th Virtual Education Encounter at Expo Guadalajara, an international event sponsored by the Organization of American States (OAS) and held in a different country each year.
The president was criticized last month after suspending the timetable for teacher evaluations in the run-up to the June 7 national elections. Members of the dissident Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion (CNTE) had blocked highways and ransacked election offices across several states in an attempt to disrupt the elections.
The program was reinstated after his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won a slim majority in the election for the federal Chamber of Deputies.
The dissident teachers object to the testing program saying it discriminates against members with fewer resources in poorer states, such as Michoacan, Oaxaca and Chiapas, and violates labor rights.
Under the reform, teachers can only be fired if they repeatedly miss the tests or fail after a third try.
The majority of teachers in Mexico, however, seem to have accepted the evaluations as a positive step to better education standards, improve their career prospects and end the corrupt practices of unions.
The latest series of evaluations held from June 20-22 saw a participation rate of 83.4 percent. The highest levels of absenteeism were noted in the three aforementioned states.
Peña Nieto stressed that the tests are the cornerstone of the educational reform package and would have “the highest impact” for Mexico.
The reforms also outlawed the practice of inheriting or buying of teachers’ positions employed for decades by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion (SNTE), the country’s largest trade union.
“For the first time (teachers’) promotions will be obtained on merit,” the president said.
Many of the teachers taking the evaluations this week were seeking promotions in their careers, including vacant director positions at kindergartens and primary schools.
The exams cover basic knowledge on a range of subjects, as well as responses to professional and ethical questions.