Mexico City, June 22 (teleSUR-RHC)-- The Mexican Secretariat for Public Education (SEP) announced on Sunday it has suspended the teacher evaluations in the states of Oaxaca and Michoacan, saying “the necessary conditions” were not in place for the process to go ahead.

The decision follows a series of protests and boycott threats by the teacher's of the CNTE union, which staunchly opposes the proposed evaluation process.

Authorities said the evaluations were conducted as planned in other states of Mexico as Chiapas and Guerrero, where dissident teachers also advised they would attempt to disrupt the process. "The evaluation process for promotion to positions has been launched in 30 states of Mexico,” the SEP said in an official statement, adding that the turnout for the evaluation reached 91.4 percent.

During the midterm elections held earlier this month, the CNTE teachers union staged a series of violent protests that included the blockade of the main highways and the airport in Oaxaca. Teachers also blockaded several polling stations and burned thousands of ballots, forcing the electoral institute to the elections in some regions.

The CNTE, who are considered as “radicals” by the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, called the implementation of evaluation examinations is a “high treason” against the teachers’ movement.

Since 2006 teachers have staged a number of protests in the impoverished and violent southeast states of Oaxaca, Michoacan, Guerrero and Chiapas, occupying public spaces for months as part of demands for better salaries and working conditions. Millions of students have been affected by almost a decade of continuous protests.

In 2013, Peña Nieto unveiled his education reform, which was immediately rejected by the CNTE as teacher evaluations was among the central points of the controversial law. Teachers say the tests do not really measure teaching skills and do not take into account the special knowledge needed to teach in rural areas and indigenous communities. Union leaders also say the law is designed to allow for mass layoffs.