Mexico president wavers on plan to cut school year by 40 days for the World Cup
MEXICO CITY, May 8 (Reuters) – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday walked back an announcement by her education minister that school holidays would start a month earlier than planned this summer due to hot weather and the World Cup, saying the proposal “is not yet final due to anger from parent associations.”
“Many Mexicans love football, we are looking forward to the World Cup, so this offer was made to bring forward the holidays, but we also have to take into account the children’s school days,” Sheinbaum told reporters at the daily morning press conference.
The announcement to cut the school year was made by Education Secretary Mario Delgado on Thursday at
“It will be ensured that all provisions of the curriculum are met and the academic progress of all students is maintained,” Delgado wrote, without detailing how this would be achieved.
According to the proposed schedule, the academic year will end on June 5 instead of July 15. Schools will start the new academic year on August 31, one day before 2025.
“It is unacceptable to use the FIFA World Cup as an argument to shorten the school calendar. Our children’s education cannot be sacrificed for a sporting event that will take place in only three of the country’s 2,500 municipalities,” Mexico’s National Association of Parents’ Associations said in a statement. he said, adding that high temperatures are nothing new.
Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara host a total of 13 World Cup matches in June and July. Closing schools can ease the traffic and congestion in these cities for hundreds of thousands of tourists expected to come to the country.
Mexico’s powerful teachers union also threatened to strike at the opening match of the World Cup last week; has long demanded increased salaries and changes to the law on teachers’ pensions.
According to official data, about 90% of students in Mexico attend public schools, while about 10% attend private institutions that are not subject to the new calendar year announced by the education minister.
Mexico is currently experiencing a severe heat wave, with temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country. But such temperatures are not unusual and begin to dissipate with the arrival of the rainy season, usually in June.
(Reporting by Raul Cortes, Iñigo Alexander and Diego Ore; Editing by Emily Greem, Kirsten Donovan)
