When President Cárdenas chose Manuel Avila Camacho as his successor, he chose a moderate, particularly on church-state issues where education was contentious. In office, Avila Camacho ended socialist education. Initially, the Ministry of Education continued various policies from the Cárdenas era, but with Avila Camacho's appointment of Jaime Torres Bodet as head of the SEP, government policy sought to raise educational standards and invest in teacher training. Torres Bodet founded the National Institute of Teacher Training. He sought to create a curriculum that was nationalist and democratic. "Education was to be secular, free of religious doctrine, and based on scientific truths."