This weekly had access to the digital version of five of the new free textbooks for first grade, which were shared with some teachers in a restricted manner. These are titles that include issues of equity and gender roles, Afro-descendants and the use of the word “todes”, which refers to those who do not assume a feminine or masculine identity. According to the material, about two and a half million copies for each title were printed in January.
MEXICO CITY (Process).- Despite the fact that Judge Yadira Elizabeth Medina ordered the printing of the new free textbooks to stop, until they had the endorsement of teachers and parents, as required by law, some have already been printed in the National Commission of Free Textbooks (Conaliteg) and in other graphic workshops in the country, with circulations that, for now, reach two and a half million copies for each work.
Among these workshops are: Lyon AG, SA de CV; Imprecorme, SA de CV; Servicios Profesionales de Impresión, SA de CV, and Corporación en Servicios Integrales de Asesoría Professional, which printed the new books in January 2023.
Although President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pointed out that the physical copies are already circulating, Proceso obtained the digital version of five first-grade books, edited only for teachers and parents: Our Knowledge, Classroom Projects, School Projects, Multiple languages and community projects.
According to a source within the Ministry of Public Education (SEP), the digital versions of these texts were delivered to some teachers since November for their knowledge and in an effort to enrich the information among themselves.
The source consulted by this weekly explained that the teachers were told that the books from first to sixth grade of primary school “are under construction.” However, they have only been provided with the aforementioned five titles because “there is a dispute” from some sectors -parents and teachers- who requested an amparo to know the content of the books “because they complained that there was no broad consultation ”.
One of the teachers who knows these digital versions considers that what the authority has done since November is a kind of “simulated consultation” because, under the pretext of “litigation”, there has been no more information about the material with which the teachers They must work in the classroom from August.
According to its digital version, the presentation of these books says: “Man does not live by bread alone. Me, if he were hungry and helpless on the street he would not ask for a piece of bread; Rather, I would ask for half a piece of bread and a book,’ said the Andalusian poet Federico García Lorca, murdered for thinking differently and for wanting a better world for his family, for the humble, for those who still have a pure soul, in solidarity who does not discriminate against people because of their skin color, their gender, their sexual preferences or because they don’t have a weight in the bag. He was a dreamer, an idealist, he believed that culture would be the key to change; he believed in books. Do you still believe in them?”
And using the word “everyone”–which refers to those who do not assume a feminine or masculine identity–, the presentation adds:
“Dear reader: in few parts of the world are textbooks free and reach the hands of all girls and boys. In Mexico, there has been a struggle so that everyone has access to culture.
“Now it’s your turn to receive the fruit of that struggle!”
