CNTE strike threatens primary school children; affects 1.4 million people

With less than a month remaining until the end of the 2025-2026 school year, the lack of agreements between the federal government and the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) keeps the conclusion of classes at risk for 1,390,673 basic education students in the country, who are affected by the indefinite strike and protests maintained by the dissident teaching union since June 1. According to figures from the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) as of June 5, Oaxaca leads the list of states with the highest number of affected campuses, with 10,653 closed schools, equivalent to 80.61% of its public educational centers. It is followed by Chiapas, with 2,392 schools; Zacatecas, with 2,081; Guerrero, with 1,380; and Michoacán, with 767. Official data also indicate that 88,106 teachers are participating in the protests in both Mexico City and Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacán, and Zacatecas, where the CNTE maintains its largest organizational presence. Read also: CNTE reduces presence in the streets of the Historic Center; teachers begin to dismantle part of the protest camp. In terms of enrollment, Oaxaca concentrates the greatest impact with 734,054 students without classes, followed by Chiapas, with 261,414; Zacatecas, with 217,375; Guerrero, with 117,495; and Michoacán, with 54,106. Nationally, the strike impacts 8.49% of the country's public schools, with only a few weeks left until the end of the school year. For Horacio Martínez, an academic at the José María Morelos Michoacán Institute of Educational Sciences, the problem is not limited to a labor dispute between the government and the teaching profession, but directly involves the guarantee of the right to education for hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents. Read also: Sheinbaum: "For now" there are no scheduled meetings with the CNTE; Segob and SEP will provide more information. The specialist maintains that the disagreements and the lack of political will from the parties to build a negotiated way out keep the end of the school year in uncertainty, particularly because there is no public strategy to address the learning lost during the conflict. "So far, neither the educational authority nor the CNTE has explained how the pedagogical impact of several weeks without classes will be addressed. That issue must necessarily be part of the negotiations," he warns. Martínez recalls that according to national and international regulatory frameworks, the primary obligation to guarantee the right to education falls to the Mexican State. Read also: CNTE challenges the government; heading for more protests. He comments that during the first 10 days of the strike, approximately 586 million pesos were wasted on payroll, an amount equivalent to 150% of the resources allocated this