This article by Gabriela Serralde originally appeared in the January 19, 2026 edition of El Sol de Morelia.
Editor’s note: Normalistas is a term for students who attend Mexico’s rural teachers training colleges. The header photograph is of Normalistas marching in Mexico City on October 2nd, 2025 in Mexico City.
Demanding the allocation of teaching positions, this [Monday] morning graduates from the Normal School of Arteaga and the School of Educators blocked Siervo de la Nación Avenue in the city of Morelia, while a union faction of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) unexpectedly took over the State Education Secretariat.
The activities began shortly after ten in the morning in the area; first the students blocked the road near the educational institution and later extended to the Infonavit offices located next to the Paseo de la República bypass where they remain indefinitely.
One of the graduates, who preferred to remain anonymous, commented that since January 15th, the educational authorities should have carried out a transparent and public process for assigning positions, since currently more than 300 of her classmates from the 2024 generation still do not have a code, but so far they have not received an answer.
“We are waiting for the second event for the allocation of permanent positions, as the SEE and the Uesicamm had agreed to give us spaces based on retirements by this time,” the Michoacán teachers college graduate said.
According to the young student teacher, on January 15th the authorities should have notified them of the number of available spaces and the number of vacancies, in order to follow up on the list of young women who have already been evaluated. To date, 314 graduates are waiting for the process to continue.
“Since we took the exam, 314 of us have been evaluated at the preschool level, but only 48 people have been assigned, and we have until May for them to assign them,” said the Normalista graduate.
This is because the process of assigning places began in April 2025; however, the process takes a year for the assignment, although if the graduates do not receive a response before May, they would have to repeat the entire procedure to get a place, and that, she noted, is what they do not want.
Likewise, the student teacher commented that fewer and fewer vacancies are opening for this level, although she stated that they are aware of places or kindergartens where they are single-teacher schools, meaning that they are being attended by one or two teachers, but later they close the groups because they cannot provide coverage.
The CNTE takes over the State Education Secretariat / Photo: Gabriela Serralde / El Sol de Morelia.
Union Takes Over Secretariat of Education
That same morning, a union faction from the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) took over the offices of the State Education Secretariat to demand various concessions. As of now, the doors of this department are closed, with no set time for the resumption of work.
Their demands include the immediate hiring of teachers from the 2019 to 2025 graduating classes, an immediate attention desk, reinstatement of dismissed colleagues , payment of withheld salaries, recategorizations and relocations, regularization of level orders and coverage of teacher shortages.
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