Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about education policy in various countries around the world.
Last month, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador began the process of canceling his predecessor’s controversial education reform initiative. The move follows through on one of Lopez Obrador’s key campaign promises and is widely seen as a gift to the country’s powerful teachers’ unions, which supported his presidential run.
Enacted in 2013 by then-President Enrique Pena Nieto, the reforms established an evaluation and review system for the hiring and promotion of teachers in Mexico’s underperforming public education system. Previously, those processes were largely controlled by the teachers’ unions, resulting in corrupt practices like the inheriting or sale of teaching jobs to underqualified candidates.