Going into the offices of the National Co-ordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) in Oaxaca, a city 350 km south-east of Mexico’s capital, is like entering a world of rebellious teenagers rather than teachers. Graffiti is scrawled on the walls and posters denounce “state terrorism”. The trade union’s radio station, Radio Planton (Demonstration Radio), rails against President Enrique Peña Nieto’s education reforms, which it blames on the IMF and other capitalist bogeymen.

This is not a local affair, however. CNTE, which is smaller but far more aggressive than Mexico’s main teachers’ union, SNTE, holds sway over four of Mexico’s most unruly states, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán and Chiapas, which contain about 15 percent of the population. All have large concentrations of indigenous people. Using a mixture of intimidation and political skill, the union is trying to knock down one of the pillars of President Peña’s government: a transformation of education that is central to a series of reforms aimed at making Mexico a more competitive economy.

Despite its crude methods, the agitation seems to be succeeding. “If they give in to these guys, they are giving in to counter-reform and corruption,” says Claudio X. Gonzalez, president of Mexicanos Primero, a charity that champions education reform. Last month, he sent a letter to the government accusing it of endangering reform — and the rule of law — by bowing to the demands of CNTE. He says blows to Peña’s credibility, such as the disappearance of 43 students in September and scandals over his family’s properties, have weakened his government’s resolve to confront the dissident teachers.

Peña is getting tough with teachers, who earn, with copious benefits, the equivalent of 513.6 days of salary for 200 days of school, according to Marco Antonio Fernandez of the Monterrey Technological Institute’s School of Government. His reform exposes them for the first time to independent evaluation, both at entry level and further up the career ladder. Those who miss three consecutive days of school without good reason can be sacked. Largesse continues nonetheless, and unionised teachers still hold powerful positions in national and state education ministries and in Congress. This year’s federal budget increases spending on teachers’ pay by 6.7 percent.

Despite its extremism, the union has got its way by threatening ruinous blockades if its demands are not met. It has won open support from Oaxaca’s leftist state government. Moises Robles Cruz, the state’s education secretary, challenges the assumption that Mexico’s industrial north and poorer south can be united under a common education policy. His area, he says, is too underdeveloped.

Such statements ought to be a red rag to the federal government. The education minister, Emilio Chuayffet, declares that all children should have equal opportunities and that no state is above the law. But with mid-term elections approaching in June, the interior ministry is handling the crisis, implying that political dealmaking will win out over policy. 

(Excerpted and adapted from )