Zapatista teachers in the Mexican state of Chiapas are pressing ahead with plans for an autonomous education system by publishing the first in a series of “rebel” textbooks.

The move represents a rejection by the indigenous people’s movement of the government’s new law aimed at redressing educational injustice.

“It makes me sad to see this,” said Margarita Gomez Brand, head of education for the Chiapan highlands, leafing through a grammar book full of pictures of students in balaclavas.

“They are not teaching anything different to what the government is providing,” she says. “What they are doing is illegal.”

The new law was adopted when 17 of Mexico’s 31 states voted for constitutional reforms in August, but the 14 states with the highest proportion of indigenous people voted against it.

Zapatistas take their inspiration from Emiliano Zapata, who won key rights for Indians in Mexico’s revolution of 1910. Dissatisfaction with education was one of the main reasons why the Zapatista National Liberation Army took up arms in 1994. They argue they have a right to an autonomous education system under article 4 of the Mexican constitution.

The issue came to a head earlier this year when Zapatistas marched to Mexico City demanding the withdrawal of military bases from the region, the release of political prisoners and the recognition of indigenous rights, including their own education system. The limited official response to these demands has raised tensions.

A key area of contention is the teaching of languages. There are nine linguistic groups in Chiapas alone and agreeing on the best teaching methods, providing appropriate textbooks and skilled teachers from the right ethnic group is a major challenge for both the government and the rebels.

“The government tried to introduce bilingual education in the 1980s,” says Susana Villasana Benitez, a researcher in indigenous studies at the University of Chiapas. “It failed because it paid little attention to cultural differences: their real aim was assimilation. Bilingual teachers often chose to teach in Spanish and indigenous children became ashamed to speak their mother tongue.”

As a result the Zapatistas sought to create a system that would help children respect their culture.“The crucial difference in their system is the pupil-teacher relationship. They study together in the cornfield and teachers bring elders into the classroom to recover traditions,” said a specialist on Zapatista education who does not want to be named for fear of reprisal.

“They are interested in basic things like survival, peace and autonomy. The whole organisation invests a lot in education: there is a lot of positive internal debate because they live with the dream that their work will change everything. Expectations are high.”

In contrast, Ms Brand admits that, in state schools, “corruption is widespread” and schools lack the public’s trust.