Mexico Reverses Course, School Year to End July 15 After Confusion Over Earlier Date

Mexico City — Mexico’s Public Education Ministry announced Monday that the 2025-2026 school year will end July 15, reversing a proposal made just days earlier to finish classes on June 4.

In a unanimous vote, education secretaries from all 32 states approved keeping the original school calendar unchanged. The next school year, 2026-2027, will begin August 31, officials said after a meeting of the National Council of Educational Authorities.

Earlier Monday, before the state secretaries’ decision, Education Minister Mario Delgado had defended his proposal to move the end of the school year to June 5 — 40 days earlier than scheduled. During an extraordinary session with state education authorities, a live broadcast of which was cut off after 30 minutes, Delgado argued that the current calendar reflects a “technocratic” vision focused solely on counting effective days rather than on students’ actual learning.

“After June 15, we enter a period that is actually used for administrative paperwork until mid-July. Classrooms remain open without any pedagogical purpose, just to fulfill a count,” Delgado told the state secretaries.

The original proposal to end the school year early had been rejected in recent days by parents and teachers’ unions, who questioned the impact on working families and the completion of educational content.