Departamento de Investigaciones Educativas, Cinvestav. México

Consejo Mexicano de Investigación Educativa

Maria de IbarrolaMaria de IbarrolaWERA/AERA May 4, 2010

1989. Mexico into the XXIst Century NAFTA / OCDE The Modernization of Mexican education.

Towards a 15 grade compulsory education

Diversification of Higher education

The Modernization of Technical and Vocational Education

“World class graduate education and research”

• Actual increase in enrollment at all levels, creation of different types of schools and profitting from ITCs for distance education 1

• “Competencies” based education– Educational aims at all levels: from preschool- to higher education to be

defined and understood in terms of “competencies”

• Evaluation, mainly of standard performances, national and international:• PISA, TIMS, Enlace, Excale

– Budget assignement strictly linked to results as evaluated– Teachers (Individual level): income increases through merit pay and

specific monetary stimuli after performance evaluation of teachers and their students.

– Institutional level: additional institutional budget subject to results of teachers and students

– Researchers become members of a National System through peer reviewed academic productivity and are entitled to a significant part of their income through a scholarship

About 50% of youngsters 15-24 are out of the school system; 35 million adults and young adults have not acquired the basic compulsory education.6

1994: The FZLN launches an ideological (and paper) war The debate on intercultural education

Young Mexicans PISA competencies for the knowledge society are among the lowest results for OECD countries 7 High internal inequality among regions and school

modalities The failure of the PMTyC Student career choices

Knowledge areas1970

%1984

% 2006

%Instituciones

privadas 2006

Universidades

tecnológicas ,

2006 %

Posgrado2006(total)

%

Agricultural sciences

3.7 9.5 2.1 0.3 1.1 1.7

Health Sciences 19.6 14.5 8.9 5.6 4.2 14.7

Exact and Natural Sciences

.9 3.0 1.8 0.3 0 5.1

Social and Administrative

Sciences43.5 42.8 44.2 63.6 37.0 45.5

Education and Humanities

4.1 2.9 11.6 6.6 1.8 21.5

Engineering and Technology

28.2 27.3 31.4 23.9 55.9 11.5

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Total 251 054 939 513 2150146 712 648 80 176 162 003

Carreras Percentage of total active population with higher education

Percentage of school enrollment

Percentage of population with higher education working in accordance to their specialty

Accounting 12.1 7.1 63.5 Education (Basic, secondary and Normal)

10.9 5.9 75.6

Administration 8.2 10.9 43.2 Law 7.9 10.7 66.3 Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

5.4 5.3 40.1

Medicine 3.4 4.1 88.1 Engineeering in computing systems

3.3 6.4 45.5

Percetual participation of these careers

51.2 50.4

– Not only economic but demographic, cultural, social and political transformations.

– Changes in the world of work

• Mexico’ labor markets– The skills of the labor force 11– Growth of the “informal labor market” 12– Informality and precarious jobs within the formal sector– The struggle for low qualified jobs:

• Street and “Street corner” economy• Not enough jobs for the better qualified young people.

• Migration • Graduate students in Mexico and abroad Brain drain ( new

fashions)• Underemployment

• Schooling plays an actual role in the compensation of work in all labor sectors 13

In spite of “world education policies”, the country is not having a steady development

▪ Nevertheless, Schooling is meaning an important difference in socioeconomic position in the country

Is it the quality of education achieved? National scandals and debates detonated by PISA’s results

▪ Underpaid teachers?▪ Is it the fault of the National Union of Teachers?▪ Mexicos resulNot enough budget?▪ ts correspond exactly to Mexico’s place among the

development rank, so, should we change the development rank?

General lack of consensus on where should education aim.

▪ and how to reach it. Schooling is not “ the variable”, manipulable at

will, that will detonate economic development. Schooling and education beyond schooling

should be integrated to a national projetc where the search of equality should be the first aim: A more equitative income distribution A far deeper intercultural reality than what was generally

thought