1. SCHOOL EDUCATION IN MEXICO – 13 Chapter 1 School education in Mexico The governance of schools is largely decentralised with states taking most responsibility as school providers. This follows the 1992 National Agreement for the Modernisation of Basic Education signed between the federal government, the state government and the National Union of Education Workers, which transferred the operation of federal basic education to state governments. However, the federal government through the Secretariat for Public Education (SEP) is responsible for national education policy and the overall strategy for the education system. The SEP regulates areas such as funding, evaluation and administration of education personnel. It retains normative authority to assure the uniformity of education services across the country and guarantee their national character. Other major players include the National Council of Educational Authorities (CONAEDU), which assumes responsibilities for educational planning and co-ordination of decision making among the federal government and the states; the National Institute for Educational Assessment and Evaluation (INEE); the National Assessment Centre for Higher Education (CENEVAL); the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL); and the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE). Major features of the Mexican education system include: the dominance of half-day schooling; the difficult social contexts faced by schools; a deficient school infrastructure; numerous challenges facing the teaching profession; the limited school autonomy; and the considerable funding inequities. Student learning outcomes in Mexico are considerably below the OECD average in spite of some progress in the last decade. There are also concerns about strong social inequities in the school system. Major reforms were launched in recent years including the Comprehensive Reform of Basic Education (RIEB), the National Assessment of Academic Achievement in Schools (ENLACE) and a range of targeted federal educational programmes. OECD REVIEWS OF EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT IN EDUCATION: MEXICO © OECD 2012 14 – 1. SCHOOL EDUCATION IN MEXICO Main features Context Mexico, with about 112 million inhabitants, is the 11th most populous country in the world and the 14th most extensive in land area. Mexico is a democratic federal republic made up of 31 states and a Federal District (Distrito Federal or D.F.), which is the political and administrative capital. The most populated federal entities are the state of Mexico (15.2 million inhabitants), the Federal District (8.9 million), Veracruz (7.6 million), Jalisco (7.5 million), Puebla (5.8 million) and Guanajuato (5.5 million). About 78% of Mexico’s population lives in urban areas dominated by the mega agglomerations of Mexico City (estimated 20 million inhabitants), Guadalajara and Monterrey, although over the last decade medium-sized and satellite cities have been growing strongly. While mega cities bring well known challenges, so too do Mexico’s rural areas, particularly in terms of service delivery. They are highly fragmented with 22% of the rural population living in localities with less than 250 inhabitants. This dispersion is closely linked to poverty which in turn is linked to geographical conditions making both services supply and community development very challenging. About a third of the population is in the 0-to-14-year-old age range (2010 census data from INEGI, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, www.inegi.org.mx). The economy of Mexico is the 13th largest in the world in nominal terms and the 11th by purchasing power parity. In 2010 its GDP per capita was USD 9 123, the 54th in the world (online data by the World Bank). The low levels of education are often pointed as one of the main inhibitors of economic prosperity and growth (see, for example, Arias et al., 2010). In 2008, 50.6 million Mexicans were asset-poor (47.4%) as they lacked sufficient income to satisfy their needs for health services, education, food, dwelling and public transportation, even though they dedicated all their economic resources to those purposes. Also, 19.5 million were food-poor (18.2%) in the sense of not having sufficient income to acquire basic food products. Six of every ten food-poor inhabitants live in the country’s rural settings (CONEVAL, 2009). The cultural diversity in the country is extensive. The Indigenous population is approximately 8 million, representing 62 ethno-linguistic groups that speak one of the 68 Indigenous languages and 364 dialectic variations. These communities show high and very high degrees of social disadvantage, a fact partly related to their remote location which hampers access to education services. The structure of the school system The Mexican school system is large. In the 2011/12 school year, 30 115 977 students were enrolled and 1 472 738 teachers were employed in a total of 242 621 schools (data provided by the SEP), for all levels of pre-tertiary education. The school system is organised in two sequential levels: basic education (typical ages 3 to 14) and upper secondary education (typical ages 15 to 17). Basic education is organised according to three stages: pre-primary education (ages 3 to 5); primary education (grades 1-6); and lower secondary education (grades 7-9) (see Figure 1.1).1 School attendance is compulsory for 15 years, including three years of pre-primary education (3-to-5-year- olds), primary and lower secondary education (from 6 to 15 years old) and, as of 2012, upper secondary education (grades 10 to 12). In primary education, all subjects are usually taught by a generalist teacher, while from lower secondary education on, subjects are taught by teachers specialising in subjects. OECD REVIEWS OF EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT IN EDUCATION: MEXICO © OECD 2012 1. SCHOOL EDUCATION IN MEXICO – 15 Figure 1.1 The Mexican school system Age 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Grade 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th Basic education (Educación Básica) Pre-primary Upper secondary education Lower secondary education Primary education (Primaria) (Media Superior) education (Secundaria) (Preescolar) Modalities: Modalities: Modalities: General programmes (Bachillerato) General; General; General; Modalities: General, Level/ Communitarian Communitarian (Comunitaria); Technical; technological, televised type/ (Comunitaria); (Telebachillerato), Colegio de Bachilleres modality Indigenous Televised Indigenous (Telesecundaria); Technical-professional programmes Communitarian; (Profesional Técnico) For workers Modalities: National College of (para trabajadores) Technical Professional Education (CONALEP); Technological Studies Centres (CETs); other Source: SEP (2011). Pre-primary and primary education are provided in three distinct modalities, each typically associated with a school type: general, communitarian and Indigenous. These seek to adapt the learning to different circumstances such as linguistic and cultural needs, remote locations and migrant groups. General schools are more typical of urban and rural zones and enrol the vast majority of students in these education levels (see Table 1.1). Indigenous schools are characterised by bilingualism/biculturalism: a school where at least one Indigenous language is taught and elements of Indigenous culture are immersed in the school’s activities. They are not necessarily attended in majority by students with an Indigenous background. Community courses are targeted at small communities and are provided by a Government Agency created in 1971, CONAFE (National Council for Educational Promotion, Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo), with the objective of promoting education among populations in rural and urban highly deprived contexts. One half of the Indigenous primary schools and at least three-quarters of the community courses are in rural areas. Of all the primary schools, 44% are multi-grade (teachers instructing two or more grades simultaneously) including all the community courses (INEE, 2009). Lower secondary education is provided in five distinct modalities, each typically associated with a school type: general, technical, televised (Telesecundarias), communitarian, and for workers. In this level of education, general schools cater for about half of the student enrolment while about 28% of students attend a technical school (a school which in addition to general education offers a range of “technical” subjects such as ICT or electronics and which gives access to any type of upper secondary education) (see Table 1.1). The Telesecundarias system – attended by one out of five students – was created in the 1960s to provide compulsory education in rural or hardly accessible areas in Mexico, even if currently many Telesecundarias are also located in urban areas. Instruction is delivered through specialised television broadcasts, as well as printed and digital materials, complemented with teachers’ instruction. The teachers are considered facilitators and are specially trained for this education modality. Unlike regular lower secondary schools, where there is a teacher per subject, the Telesecundarias OECD REVIEWS OF EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT IN EDUCATION: MEXICO © OECD 2012 16 – 1. SCHOOL EDUCATION IN MEXICO system allows having only one teacher per grade or school. In the 2008/09 school year, about 20% of Telesecundarias had either one or two teachers in charge of all the three grades (INEE, 2009). A small proportion of students (0.4%) attend CONAFE community