For years, children in countries around the world have enjoyed summer vacation. Unfortunately, it seems to be disappearing in Mexico.
The 2011-2012 school year was a joke here. The government decided to cancel classes in PRIVATE schools during the Panamerican Games. Their reason: private school=rich=many cars. Apparently they’ve never driven around this town on a Saturday. There are many, many cars here and cancelling school for two weeks in October didn’t do much to change that fact. To compensate for this “vacation,” we started school a week early, came back from Christmas vacation almost a week early, and now we get out of school after the first week in July. Translation: Less summer vacation.
Now that the 2012-2013 school calendar has been published by the SEP, we are scheduled to come back to school (teachers) on August 8, 2012. Summer vacation for children: 8 weeks. Summer vacation for teachers: 4 weeks, 2 days. This translates to approximately $350 USD in childcare for me. Ugh. Not only that, due to an irresponsibly scheduled vacation, making a trip to the States is not likely.
Looks like the SEP is taking of the advantage of the calendar changes for the Panamerican games. We start and end school at the same times as the 2011-2012 school year. Only this time, we don’t have a two week vacation in October. Sneaky SEP.
Expat Mexico 