It took five days, a small crowd of supporters outside the building, and an official dismissal notice to finally get Marx Arriaga out of his office at Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Education (SEP). When he left on Feb. 18, backpack over his shoulder, he headed for the Metro and then home to Texcoco — and announced he would return to teaching in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
The episode, clumsy from start to finish, exposed deep fractures inside President Claudia Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena movement over who controls Mexico’s public school textbooks and what they should say.
Arriaga had served since the López Obrador era as director general of Educational Materials at the SEP, overseeing production of 107 new free textbooks under the Nueva Escuela Mexicana (New Mexican School), or NEM, the education reform model launched in 2019. The books were praised by the left as a break from privatized, market-driven education — and attacked by conservatives, parents, and educators who said they contained ideological content, factual errors, and cut core subjects like mathematics.
The conflict began last October, when the SEP’s Undersecretary of Basic Education, Angélica Noemí Juárez Pérez, sent Arriaga official orders to revise the materials for the 2026-2027 school year. Documents obtained by the magazine Proceso show the ministry flagged 192 specific contents for elimination or revision, including sections on the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, the forced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students, and what it called material that was “not relevant,” “confusing,” or “not didactic.” Arriaga refused, saying the changes would gut the pedagogical logic of the entire curriculum.
When the SEP moved to remove him on Feb. 13, he didn’t go quietly. He held press conferences from inside his office. He broadcast live on social media, wearing the same clothes for days. He signed employment papers for contract staff before leaving, a move his critics said was intended to entrench his team and complicate things for his successor. Supporters rallied outside, chanting “Education first for the worker’s son.”
The government’s handling of it all was widely criticized. Education Secretary Mario Delgado said little publicly. President Sheinbaum, appearing to minimize the controversy, said the only change requested had been to include more women in the textbooks. That statement drew scorn: official memos showed the requested changes went much further. Sheinbaum also seemed to criticize how her own ministry had notified Arriaga of his removal. Delgado later admitted the dismissal notice had been “very poorly handled.”
Reforma opinion writer Gabriela Warkentin, one of Mexico’s most prominent media voices, was blunt in a column published today. “For five days,” she wrote, “the government ceded the narrative and we still do not know how large the damage will be.” Warkentin argued that what should have been a clear political win — replacing a controversial holdover from the previous administration with a fresh face — became a self-inflicted wound. “Handled well,” she wrote, the transition “would have been a resounding triumph for the President.”
The new director, Nadia López García, has a markedly different profile from her predecessor. Born in Oaxaca’s Mixteca Alta region to agricultural workers and a native speaker of the Mixtec language Ñuu Savi, she holds a degree in pedagogy from UNAM and has published 11 books translated into 10 languages. She previously served as national coordinator of literature at the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL). The SEP said her priorities will include adding more women to history lessons, expanding materials in indigenous languages, and producing formats in Braille and large print.
Sheinbaum has since stated the core of the NEM model will not change. That declaration, Warkentin argues in Reforma, amounts to a political concession. “Any change this government now wants to make to the textbooks will be scrutinized and blocked by the hard-line wing of the Movement,” she wrote.
The textbook controversy has been building for years. Since the NEM books first appeared in 2023, they have been challenged in courts, pulled from some state classrooms, and criticized by academic groups, parents, and education nonprofits. Education advocacy group Mexicanos Primero noted last year that the model had been implemented without sufficient teacher training or independent learning assessments. Mexico spends around $2,790 per student at the basic education level annually, well below the OECD average of roughly $10,000.
For more on the debate over Mexico’s public education system and its ongoing reforms, see our coverage of education policy in Mexico.
Factbox: Key Players and Timeline
- Marx Arriaga Navarro — Former Director General of Educational Materials, SEP; oversaw the creation of 107 free textbooks under the NEM model; refused to revise content ordered by the ministry; barricaded in his office Feb. 13–18, 2026; announced return to classroom teaching in Ciudad Juárez
- Nadia López García — Arriaga’s successor, effective Feb. 16; Oaxacan pedagogue, poet, and indigenous rights activist; native Mixtec speaker; previously coordinated national literature programs at INBAL; author of 11 books translated into 10 languages
- Mario Delgado — Secretary of Education; acknowledged the dismissal process was “very poorly handled”; said Arriaga refused to change “a single comma” in the textbooks
- Claudia Sheinbaum — President of Mexico; said the only change requested was the inclusion of more women in the textbooks; stated the NEM model will remain intact
- Nueva Escuela Mexicana (NEM) — Education reform model launched under former President López Obrador in 2019; replaced traditional subject-based curriculum with project-based learning; the 107 free textbooks it produced have faced sustained controversy over content, quality, and ideological framing
- The disputed content — Official documents show the SEP requested elimination or revision of 192 specific items, including references to the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, the Ayotzinapa disappearances, and the “Dirty War” period of political repression