The current state of Mexico’s educational system is shameful. 41 percent of the Mexican students are behind on critical reading while an alarming 55 percent are below their ages’ math skills. These statistics are from a 2012 report by the Program for International Student Assessment. Sadly, not only the test scores are low but the drop out rate is high and does not seem to diminish. In the "Country Note" for Mexico by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, it is noted that less than 40 percent of Mexican citizens between the ages of 25 and 64 have a high school degree. Another thing I noticed was the education gap between men and women. (I have a lot of thoughts about that so it will be for another article.)
What do these statistics mean? That the education structure in Mexico is highly deficient for both the development of students' knowledge and the long-term economic growth of the country.
The way that Mexico’s current president, Enrique Peña Nieto, chose to address this problem was by implementing education reform. Of course, this is not the only thing he has implemented during his presidency, but none of the other reforms have caused as much opposition as the education one. According to Mexico's Secretary of Public Education, this reform is meant to “guarantee the exercise of rights of children and young adults towards an integral education, one that is inclusive and of quality that provides them with the tools to succeed in a globalized world.” This reform would also create the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education, which is intended to test teachers continuously to make sure they meet standards to keep their job.
I tried to look for the exact wording of this bill but, could not find anything. What I did find are lots of articles about the recent killings by government force in the teacher unions’ protests. I only found somewhat decent information when I looked for it in Spanish. I say only decent because a formal briefing or copy of the original reform is not given to the citizens. Only watered down points are highlighted and bellow each one-sentence statement is the option to Tweet or of Facebook share it. I’m serious.
A little info graphic is also given and in it are the four keypoints of the reform.
- Regulates the national system of evaluation
- Public education will be stripped of the FREE component and donations will be handled by districts.
- Student testing will take place to evaluate their progress
- There will be round the clock school and food will be provided as well as a system of companionship on the way to school.
Before reading this I thought maybe the reform could be a good thing. It’s really not and we should all support the teachers and doctors that are protesting against it.
As you can see, the first point is to test teachers. Here’s what’s wrong with it.
What standards are to be met? How often are the evaluations? Is there a warning system? Who decides on who gets to keep their job or not? Will teachers have to take days off from teaching in order to get evaluated?
None of these questions have been answered by the government or the lame infographic on the government’s website.
Now, the second point:
What kind of idea is this? If one of the problems in Mexico is a high level of poverty, then how does a privatized school system make sense?
Here’s a little personal story of when I went to school in Mexico: Not all students come from a middle class family. Around half of my classmates lived in really rural areas in either farms or mountains and they would get to school by walking. They did not have the necessary school supplies so they would get scolded by the teacher. Those students didn’t play or talk much and I wondered why. Only later did I find out that they did not eat breakfast before their hour-long commute to school, did not have money to buy lunch and were saving their energy for their journey back home. These students came from large families and probably only ate once a day.
How will families afford to send their children to school now if they are also going to be charged for books, which used to be free? Every grade needs, on average, six books. Let’s say each book is 50 pesos. Then each student needs 450 pesos. If a family has three children, that’s 1350 pesos.
Point number three:
Can’t Mexico see from more developed countries and how they’re trying to get away from standardized tests in order to learn instead of memorize?
And last, the fourth point:
Is 24-hour school an incentive for students to do better? What kind of food will be given? Since school will not be free anymore then is food free? Companionship, what is this?
Again, none of these questions are answered.
There are news reports of how teachers oppose these measures and how the government opposed these teachers by sending police with tear gas and guns to “control” the public. Three people have been killed so far and many injured and arrested.
With all this violence, what’s next?
In my opinion, the recent events are enough to form a case against Mexico’s government to the International Criminal Court. Look for my article next week, which will be about how Mexican citizens can accuse the government before the ICC.
For further reading:
Georgetown Public Policy Review
OECD Country Note
