Mexico president wavers on plan to cut school year by 40 days for the World Cup

MEXICO CITY, May 8 (Reuters) – Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday appeared to roll back an announcement by her education minister that school holidays will start more than a month sooner than scheduled this summer due to the heat and the World Cup, saying the proposal was not yet final amid outrage from parents’ associations.

“Many Mexicans love soccer, we’re looking forward to the World Cup, so this proposal was made to bring the holidays forward, but we also have to take into account the children’s school days,” Sheinbaum told journalists at her daily morning press conference, adding that “there isn’t a set timeline yet” for the proposed reduction in the academic calendar.

The announcement to cut the school year was made in a post on X on Thursday by Secretary of Education Mario Delgado, who said the National Council of Educational Authorities made the “modification” in response to a heat wave in the country as well as the hosting of the World Cup. 

“It will be ensured that all provisions of the curriculum are met and that the academic progress of all students is maintained,” Delgado wrote, without detailing how that would be achieved.

Under the proposed schedule, the academic year would end on June 5 instead of July 15. Schools would start the new academic year on August 31, one day earlier than in 2025. 

“Using the FIFA World Cup as an argument to shorten the school calendar is unacceptable. Our children’s education cannot be sacrificed for a sporting event that will take place in just three of the country’s 2,500 municipalities,” Mexico’s National Union of Parent Associations said in a statement, adding that high temperatures were nothing new. 

Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara are hosting a total of 13 World Cup matches in June and July. Closing schools could ease traffic and congestion in those cities for the hundreds of thousands of tourists expected to descend on the country.

Mexico’s powerful teachers’ union last week also threatened to strike during the World Cup’s opening match, having long demanded higher pay and changes to the law governing teachers’ pensions. 

According to official data, around 90% of students in Mexico attend public schools, while approximately 10% attend private institutions, which are not subject to the new calendar year announced by the education minister. 

Mexico is currently experiencing a severe heat wave with temperatures in parts of the country hitting 45 degrees Celsius. But such temperatures are not unusual and typically begin to dissipate in June with the arrival of the rainy season. 

(Reporting by Raul Cortes, Iñigo Alexander and Diego Ore; Editing by Emily Greem, Kirsten Donovan)