translated from Spanish: CNTE and SNTE to intervene in the allocation of places, says opinion

The Committee on Education is expected to discuss and approve the opinions of the three secondary laws of the educational reform of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday. Among the proposals is the holding of “tripartite” tables in each state with the PMI, state education authorities and trade union representation for the allocation of places. 
“Trade union representations” will also be included in deciding the promotions and even changes of workplaces of education employees, this as a “guarantee in respect for workers’ rights,” as set out in the proposal for Law for the Career System of Teachers and Teachers. 
This means that the legislation would be included in labour decisions to the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), which has the trade union representation recognized by the Secretariat of Labour, and also of the CNTE, the dissident wing union, which has its own representation strongholds.   
The same legislation also provides that graduates of the normal syllalists will have a teaching place when they graduate automatically, a proposal on which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador agrees, he said last Thursday. 
However, the latter would be “unconstitutional” and could lead to “constitutional controversies” because it contravenes the third article, reformed last May, says Alma Maldonado, researcher at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the IPN (Cinvestav). 
Article Third states that “the admission, promotion and recognition of staff performing the teaching, directive or supervisory function shall be carried out through selection processes attended by applicants on an equal basis, which will be public, transparent, equitable and impartial and will consider the knowledge, skills and experience necessary for the learning and integral development of the educated.” 
Therefore, Maldonado says, to establish in the Law that graduates of an institution would have a place when graduating would mean “giving them priority” and therefore contravene with the criterion of “equal conditions” for all applicants for a teaching position. 
In addition, a program of economic incentives for teachers called the Horizontal Level Promotion Program with Incentives in Basic Education is included, i.e. even if teachers do not have a job promotion, they could increase their salary, such as happened with the Master Career Program.
What is Education Reform?
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had as a campaign promise the abrogation of the educational reform of President Enrique Peña Nieto, which required teachers to take exams for admission, promotion and permanence in the education system. Those who did not approve the exams were removed from the classroom and, although they did not lose the place, they were reassigned to administrative activities. 
This, according to Peña Nieto’s argument, would end the sale and inheritance of teaching places. Although the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), which groups master’s dissent, insisted that the reform was labor and violated their rights. 
Teachers were also sanctioned for missing their workplaces without justification, this in response to the mobilizations of teachers who maintained unemployment for long periods of time and left students without class. 
On December 12, the President sent the proposal for the repeal of Education Reform to Congress. First it was approved by the Chamber of Deputies and then by the Senate on May 9. This led to the amendment to Article Third in the Constitution, but the three secondary laws were pending. 
This is the General Law on Education, which contains the new provisions in the area in accordance with the reform of the Third Article; the Law on the Continuous Improvement of Education, which will establish the body called the National Commission for the Continuous Improvement of Education, which would replace the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education (INEE); and the General Law on the System for the Career of Teachers and Teachers, which will define the new scheme of admission to the teaching service, i.e. the allocation of places.
For the latter there have been mobilizations by the CNTE, because it ensures that its demands are not taken into account, because what it seeks is to participate in the allocation of places. Last week, he even closed St. Lazarus and prevented people from entering and leaving the compound in protest. He has also held meetings with President López Obrador, although the authority responsible for approving the reforms is the Legislative. 
Draft opinions were handed out to the members of the Committee on Education on Tuesday for discussion on Wednesday. Here are some of the most relevant aspects: 
– For the allocation of seats, Article 39 proposes that the PSE should conduct a public process in which it makes available to the educational authorities of the federal entities, and the trade union representations, the results of the assessment of the “elements multifactorials”, at a tripartite table in each of the States and Mexico City, respecting the rights of workers.
– The “multifactorial” elements for granting a place replace the knowledge examination with a “system for assessing the necessary knowledge and skills of the applicant”. Also pedagogical teacher training; accreditation of minimum undergraduate studies; overall career average; extracurricular courses with recognition of official validity; academic mobility programmes; mastery of a different language or teaching experience.  
In order to strengthen public educational training institutions, Article 40 states that graduates of the country’s normal public schools, the National Pedagogical University and the Magisterium Update Centres will have priority admission to educational public service.
– For promotion or promotion, Article 42 proposes that it will be through “annual selection processes”, considering a series of criteria that would also be delivered to the “tripartite” table in each state with representation of the PSE, educational authorities of the union representation. 
– Article 54 provides that staff assigned a level of the Magisterial Career Program and/or the Promotion Program in the Basic Education Incentive Function may participate in the Horizontal Level Promotion Program with Incentives in Basic Education, subject to compliance with the established requirements.
– The previous legislation article on “the provision of training, training and updating” is deleted, which commanded “to focus on the continuous improvement of teachers to strengthen the learning of children, youth and adolescents”. 
– It is established that the National System for The Continuous Improvement of Education will be a structured and coordinated set of actors, institutions and processes for the continuous improvement of education with the aim of ensuring excellence and equity in services Educational. 
The principles of the System are the learning of girls, children, adolescents and young people, as the focus of state action, the continuous improvement of education, the recognition of teachers and teachers as fundamental agents of the educational process and social transformation. 
– The National Commission for the Continuous Improvement of Education is established, as a decentralized, non-sectorized public body, whose powers will be to carry out studies, specialized research and diagnostic, formative and comprehensive assessments of the National Education System. Also determine outcome indicators of continuous improvement in education; establish the criteria to be met by the evaluators for the evaluation, qualitative and formative processes of the continuous improvement of education, and issue guidelines related to the development of the Magisterium. 
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Original source in Spanish