Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0239/02399.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 25KB | 412 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02399}
$Pretitle{279}
$Title{Mexico
Chapter 6A.   Education}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Thomas E. Weil}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{education
schools
educational
percent
higher
university
federal
primary
private
school}
$Date{1975}
$Log{}
Country:     Mexico
Book:        Area Handbook for Mexico
Author:      Thomas E. Weil
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1975

Chapter 6A.   Education

     During the early 1970s more than 80 percent of the students enrolled in
the regular school program were in the primary grades, and primary enrollments
had more than doubled since 1960. The rate of growth had been still faster in
middle-level schools, however, and the rise of enrollments in institutions of
higher education in the late 1960s and early 1970s overcrowded existing
facilities and severely strained federal and state education budgets. Outside
the regular system, an extensive adult education program provided a wide
variety of literacy, basic education, and vocational courses, but illiteracy
remained a serious problem in the more remote rural parts of the country.

     In both quantity and quality, the schools were unevenly distributed.
Above the primary level, nearly all were located in urban centers, and a large
proportion of the rural units offered only a few grades of primary school. At
all levels the most extensive facilities, the best trained teachers, the
highest level of student enrollment, and the best student performance and
retention rates were found in the larger urban centers, particularly in the
Federal District and the large cities of Central Mexico, the North, and the
North Pacific.

     A university was established in Mexico not much more than a half century
after the discovery of America, but education during the colonial period and
the formative years of the republic was available to few children other than
those of the elite, and education did not reach into the countryside. The
modern educational era began only with the spread of schools and
democratization of education that followed the Revolution of 1910.

     Schooling was seen as the paramount instrument for achievement of the
revolutionary goals, and during subsequent years these goals have remained
fundamental in the evolution of educational philosophy and programs. Until
about 1940 the emphasis of educational programmers was placed on rural primary
schooling and literacy classes directed toward the revolutionary goal of
integrating the previously neglected indigenous population into the national
life.

     Later, the establishment and improvement of rural schools continued at a
slower rate as the thrust shifted to the introduction and improvement of new
programs in urban localities in response to the needs of the rapidly
developing urban economy. Continuously, however, the revolutionary concept of
national identity and pride in country has been reflected in school curricula
and has been deliberately encouraged in students as an incentive for their
achievement of academic excellence.

     Although the educational program is generally a centralized one, there]
has been relatively little overall planning, and an intricate system has
developed with overlapping functions and responsibilities and an interweaving
of federal, local, and private authority. Above the primary level, a
relatively clear dividing line is drawn laterally between academic and
technical studies, but the division between middle-level and higher education
is blurred.

Administration and Finance

     The principal educational authority at the federal level is the Ministry
of Public Education (Secretaria de Educacion Publica-SEP). Certain specialized
schools are administered and funded by the ministries of defense, navy,
agriculture, and health. The basic authority resides in the federal
government, which enacts legislation assigning degrees of responsibility to
local administrations. The educational system has evolved as a generally
centralized one, in part because the financial resources of many of the states
never permitted them to develop their own programs.

     Beneath subsecretariats for general education, technical and higher
education, and cultural affairs, the SEP is composed of more than thirty
directorates general (including four for primary schools in the Federal
District), committees, and councils. Since World War II the senior officials
of the ministry have had university or equivalent schooling and for the most
part have been drawn from the educational community. They have tended to
retain their appointments during the term of office of the incumbent
president, and changes at the ministerial level have not substantially altered
the pattern of the educational program.

     The SEP has original authority for prescribing and coordinating
administrative procedures, curriculum contents, requirements for admission,
and graduation from schools. State and municipal governments assume day-to-day
responsibilities and operate a considerable number of schools, particularly at
the middle and higher levels.

     Linkage between the individual schools and higher authority is provided
by corps of school inspectors staffed by senior teachers who provide both
academic and administrative inspection services. Each directorate general with
responsibility for a group or category of schools at the primary or secondary
level maintains its own inspection corps.

     The legal charter of the educational system is set forth in Article 3 of
the Constitution of 1917, which has been amended several times. The Organic
Law of Public Education implements the constitutional provisions, and some
institutions of higher education operate under their own organic laws.

     Private education is authorized under the Constitution. Instruction in
private schools must be entirely secular, however, and the state retains the
authority at any time to withdraw recognition of a private institution. The
schools must conform to the established standards of the public system with
respect to such matters as objectives, programs of study, and examinations and
must reserve 5 percent of their vacancies for scholarships to needy students
designated by the government.

     In 1972 less than 9 percent of the primary enrollment was in private
schools. Current data for enrollments at the middle level were not available,
but in 1968 about 26 percent had been in private units. A small number of
schools are operated on a mixed or cooperative basis in small localities in
which the cost of construction and payments of the staff are contributed to by
patronage committees or associations of parents. Attendance may or may not be
free, appointments of teachers are controlled by the federal or state
government, and the principal must be an SEP appointee.

     The largest of the institutions of higher education, the National
Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico), is
an autonomous institution operating under its own organic legislation. The
other public universities are state institutions, although some of these also
are autonomous.

     A majority of the private universities are under indirect supervision of
the public institutions; by virtue of their laws, the National Autonomous
University of Mexico and the state universities are entitled to "incorporate"
private universities in order that the studies pursued and degrees granted by
them be recognized. Private universities may also receive recognition from the
SEP or be granted the status of "free universities" by the federal government.
Several are incorporated both with the SEP and with a public university. The
Autonomous University of Guadalajara, the largest of the private institutions,
is a "free university" with federal charter and operates under authority of
the General Universities Council.

     In Mexico the relationship between the upper middle school and the
university is unlike that in other countries. Public universities maintain
their own upper