Martha Martínez and Claudia Salazar / Reform Agency
Tuesday, January 31, 2023 | 23:04
Mexico City.- Opposition deputies demanded the resignation of Sady Arturo Loaiza Escalona and Marx Arriaga, heads of the Content Directorate of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) and that their positions be filled by academics without ideological biases.
The PRI member Melissa Vargas described as painful that Loaiza Escalona, a foreigner with a very marked ideological profile towards a communist government, has been in charge of redesigning the textbooks of the so-called New Mexican School since last year.
“On the social issue, specifically, we don’t want ideology in the classroom and even less when it comes to political ideology,” he said.
REFORMA published that Loaiza Escalona, a former Venezuelan Chavista official, has been in charge since last year of the analysis and pedagogical redesign of SEP materials.
The legislator recalled that since the beginning of this Administration there have been some attempts to transform the History and Social Sciences books in order to include the most recent episode of the so-called Fourth Transformation.
He warned that this situation is serious, because politics has to be done in the parties, not in the classroom.
Vargas demanded that the SEP immediately dismiss Loaiza Escalona and that his place be taken by a person with critical, objective, impartial capacity and, above all, with all academic credentials.
“We demand that the Ministry of Education remove that person from the preparation of our Mexican Study Plans, we do not require that a person who does not know the Mexican context, who has not been trained in Mexican classrooms, come to try to re-educate our children with a completely external view,” he said.
The PRI member also asked to review the profiles of those who make up the Educational Materials Directorate of the SEP in charge of Marx Arriaga, because in her opinion, attempts to ideologize the study plans have been constant.
“We need to review who is integrating this area. From the announcement through the SEP of the creation of a New Mexican School, where they said that it had to be free of neoliberalism and with a vision more oriented towards those who have less, which we have seen has been a constant manipulation of the Study Plans”, he assured.
PRD member Olga Luz Espinosa, a member of the Education Commission, recalled that since the beginning of the Legislature, her parliamentary group has demanded the appearance of Marx Arriaga, in order for him to explain who is designing the textbooks and training books and teacher training.
He indicated that although the petition has not been approved by the Commission, he is not surprised that among Marx Arriaga’s team there are people who, like him, seek to ideologize education.
“The ideological vision of education in this country has the consequence that they have worked in a regime like Nicolás Maduro’s and that they have supported Chavismo and that they are now writing SEP textbooks. I insist, yes Mr. Marx Arriaga has that vision of creating doctrinal and ideological content, obviously he has to surround himself with these people,” he said.
Espinosa demanded the resignation of Sady Arturo Loaiza Escalona and his superior Marx Arriaga, so that both positions be filled by officials who have all the credentials for the position.
“Not only Mr. Sady but also Marx Arriaga should resign, because he is charged with his political movement and if he wants to do politics, go to Morena and do it there,” he demanded.
In his turn, the PAN member Carlos Valenzuela considered that it is necessary to inquire about the legal situation of residence of Loaiza Escalona and whether he is authorized to carry out work activities in Mexico.
He also demanded to review the type of contract he has with the SEP and if there were no other national applicants for the position.
The legislator stressed the importance of officials in charge of designing educational materials not having ideological biases.
“It is important that whoever is in charge of designing educational materials does not have an ideological bias, that their training is secular, scientific. Without ideological biases,” he reiterated.
