ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the complex progress of educational policies in Mexico. During the last decades, the idea of standardization was complemented by the strong centralized curriculum regulation employing the textbooks that have a long tradition in Mexico. Since creating the National Commission of Free Textbooks (CONALITEG) in 1959, Mexico has used the same textbooks for all schools. The Mexican education government model centralizes power and decentralizes administration. Under Felipe Calderón’s presidency, a curricular reform that adopted the centrality of competencies was approved. In February 2012, Congress voted for a reform to the Constitution that established secondary schooling as compulsory, increasing to 15 years of compulsory education in Mexico. The change of administration in 2012 meant the arrival of a new stage in Mexican education policy. The federal state, under Peña Nieto, centralized the government of education even more. In the second part of Peña Nieto’s six-year period, the focus was on developing curricula activities. This series of reforms were abruptly interrupted when Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in 2018. The political change was so profound that it required a new constitutional reform – the new agenda centered on the Federal Strategy of Inclusive Education.
