Printers warn that delivery of free textbooks for the 2019-2020 school year is under threat

The School year 2019-2020 it could be the first in 60 years without giving elementary students free textbooks, according to two surveys conducted by the Mexican media.

For decades, National Commission for Free Textbooks (Conaliteg), established in 1959, was responsible for contracting textbook printing. This has changed with the new administration, now the one in charge will be the Senior official of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.

Before, printers started production in December to deliver them in May to Conaliteg, three months before the beginning of the school year. The delay between delivery and the start of clbades was a necessary time for the distribution of books throughout the Republic. They are slow to reach hard-to-reach areas such as mountains, jungle or ravines.

The offers were to start in September award contracts in October and start printing in December 2018. The change of government may include the first three months of delay. However the call was launched until March 12, 2019, through the Officialía Mayor according to the OSD modality (subsequent rebate offers).

The government has declined 10 times the proposals that have reached itso last week the call was canceled. The tenders have not contacted the typographers and claim that it is impossible to offer the prices of the previous year because they will now be responsible for almost all inputs.

In the previous badenios, printers were only asked to print and bind the booksConaliteg provided them with paper, cardboard and pallets, which reduced the costs they had to incur, according to a bidder consulted by a newspaper The financier.

In the appeal launched in March by the mayor of Oficialía, it had been requested that the quote will include all the necessary supplies for the printing and binding of 50 million copiesexcept paper. One of the conditions was that the unit cost would be 14 pesos, but the minimum cost exceeds 16 pesos.

In all 220 million pounds are neededonly a quarter has been tendered for production, it is not known how it is intended to cover the rest. The draw was on call bids were 19 titles for preschool and primarythe condition of printed materials needed in secondary schools, telesecundarias, special education, natives, those given to teachers and parents was unknown.

This situation is contradicted by information provided by the education secretariats of some states, such as Colima, where they have already announced that they will start distributing free textbooks for the 2019-2020 school year.