Redalyc.The Education Challenge in Mexico: Delivering Good Quality
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Innovación Educativa ISSN: 1665-2673 [email protected] Instituto Politécnico Nacional México Guichard, Stéphanie The education challenge in Mexico: delivering good quality education to all Innovación Educativa, vol. 8, núm. 44, julio-septiembre, 2008, pp. 32-61 Instituto Politécnico Nacional Distrito Federal, México Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=179420816005 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative 32 Innovación Educativa, vol. 8 núm. 44 • julio-septiembre The education challenge in Mexico: delivering good quality education to all* Stéphanie Guichard** Resumen En México, el crecimiento potencial del PIB no es lo suficientemente rápido para reducir la brecha en cuanto a ingresos con respecto a los países de la OCDE. La persistente debilidad en el desarrollo del capital humano contribuye a esta situación. En particular, los mexicanos pasan pocos años en la educación formal, y la calidad que reciben es menor que en las otras naciones miembros. En este artículo se analiza el desempeño de los servicios de educación hasta medio supe- rior (secundaria superior), y se evalúa tanto la eficiencia (resultados por dinero invertido) como la equidad del sistema. Se muestra que éste tiene que mejorar mucho más, a un ritmo acelerado, así como la formación de las futuras generacio- nes para la vida y su inserción en la economía moderna, a fin de reducir la brecha de capital humano con otros países de la Organización. El problema fundamental no es la falta de recursos sino la ineficiencia y mala asignación del gasto junto a débiles incentivos destinados a los profesionales de la educación para obtener un buen desempeño. El documento hace recomendaciones concretas para mejorar el sistema. Los esfuerzos realizados por las autoridades van en la dirección correcta pero no son suficientes. * Reto de la educación en México: entrega de una educación de calidad para todos. The Education Challenge in Mexico: Delivering Good Quality Education to All, Economics Department Working Papers, No. 447, © OECD 2005. ** Economista egresada de la Universidad de Bordeaux, labora en Country Studies Branch of the Economics Department (división de estudios de países del departamento de economía) de la OCDE. La autora agradece a Jean-Philippe Cotis, Andrew Dean, Val Koromzay, Bénédicte Larre, Nicholas Vanston, Andreas Schleicher y a Carla Belmont por sus valiosos comentarios, así como por compartir sus conocimientos. Un agradecimiento especial a Sylvie Toly por su excelente asistencia en la investigación. Asimismo, el documento está enriquecido por la aportaciones de exper- tos mexicanos en educación, de la Secretaría de Educación Pública de México y de los estados de Chiapas y Sonora. Innovación Educativa, vol. 8 núm. 44 • julio-septiembre 33 Abstract The growth of potential GDP in Mexico is not fast enough to narrow the income gap with other OECD countries at a sufficient pace. The persistent weakness in human capital development contributes to this situation. In particular, Mexicans spend comparatively few years in formal education, and the quality of the educa- tion they receive is lower than in other OECD countries. This paper discusses the performance of education services up to the upper secondary level. It assesses both the efficiency (outcome for money invested) and the equity of the system and shows that the education system has to be improved further to narrow the human capital gap with other OECD countries at a faster pace and to better pre- pare children for life and work in a modern economy. The key problem is not a lack of resources but rather inefficiencies and misallocation of spending together with weak incentives for education professionals to perform well. The paper makes specific recommendations to improve the system. The ongoing efforts undertaken by the authorities go in the right direction but are not sufficient. Résumé La croissance du PIB potentiel au Mexique n’est pas assez soutenue pour permet- tre une réduction de l’écart de revenu avec les autres pays de l’OCDE à un rythme suffisant. La faiblesse persistante du Mexique en termes de développement du capital humain contribue à cette situation. En particulier, les Mexicains passent relativement peu d’années sur les bancs de l’école, et la qualité de l’enseigne- ment qu’ils reçoivent est moins bonne que dans les autres pays de l’OCDE. Ce papier examine la performance des services d’enseignement au Mexique jusqu’au deuxième cycle du secondaire. Il évalue tant l’efficience (les résultats obtenus par rapport aux sommes investies) que l’équité du système et montre que ce dernier doit être encore améliorer pour que le Mexique puisse combler plus vite son retard de capital humain par rapport aux autres pays de l’OCDE et mieux préparer ses enfants à vivre et travailler dans une économiemoderne. Le coeur du problème n’est pas tant le manque de ressources, mais plutôt l’inefficacité et la mauvaise allocation des dépenses, ainsi que le manque d’incitations motivant les profes- sionnels de l’éducation. Ce chapitre contient des recommandations spécifiques pour améliorer le système. Les efforts actuels des pouvoirs publics vont dans la bonne direction mais sont insuffisants. Palabras clave: educación, capital humano, México. Key words: education, human capital, México. Mot-clef: éducation, capital humain, Mexique. Introduction: the human capital challenge Since the 1995 financial crisis, Mexico has made substantial progress in terms of macroeconomic stabilisation, and important reforms have been undertaken to fur- ther open the economy, improve the functioning of product markets and strength- en the financial sector. However, the improvement in economic performance has 34 Innovación Educativa, vol. 8 núm. 44 • julio-septiembre remained insufficient to narrow noticeably the income gap with more advanced OECD countries. With potential output growth currently estimated at around 4%, it would take several generations for Mexico to catch up with the average OECD GDP per capita. The overriding challenge for policymakers in Mexico is to raise potential growth, and thereby the convergence of living standards towards those in more advanced OECD countries. The income gap in Mexico is to a large extent explained by low labour productivity, and the persistence of the gap by low pro- ductivity growth gains over the past decades. One important factor behind low productivity is the low level of human capital. Human capital in Mexico, as measured by average years of schooling amongst the working-age population, is the lowest in the OECD and there has been only limited progress over recent decades (in contrast with Korea or even Spain and Greece) (figure 1). Moreover, while primary education has become nearly universal, Mexican enrolment rates are still lagging at lower and upper secondary education levels (figure 2).1 About 20% of the population aged 12-15 has already left school and a quarter of those still at school have already repeated at least one class. The quality of education, defined as the impact of the education system on the academic, economic and social capabilities of students, is also low. Most indica- tors, including repetition rates, dropout rates and students’ achievements tested at both national and international levels show that the average quality of educa- tion services is poor and although repetition and drop-out rates have decreased in recent years there has not been any improvement in international literacy surveys such as PISA. This could be just a short-term effect: Mexico’s success in lowering the less than 15-years old drop-out rate might have lowered average performance. However, other Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Brazil and Chile, achieved comparable results at PISA with a much larger enrolment (i.e. an even more diverse student population). And, examples in other OECD coun- tries, such as Korea and Poland, show that it is possible to increase both quality and quantity. Overall, the education system does not yet provide Mexicans with the skills they will need to face international competition.2 Raising the quantity of education has been a policy priority for several decades, but only in the early 1990s did quality move to the top of the agenda. However, these reforms have been insufficient and their implementation has proved difficult. Quality reforms are indeed usually more complicated to design than programmes to increase cov- erage, and they are usually politically harder to implement.3 1. The situation is comparable in other Latin American countries (cf. Wolff and Castro, 2000). 2. Beside PISA, national tests also show large inadequacies. For instance, in 6th grade close to 60% of students are below the acceptable level for reading (see Quesada García et al. (2004)). According to the Ministry of Education (see Secretaría de Educación Pública (2004)) at the end of upper secondary 38% of the students were below the national standards in reading and 90% in mathematical reasoning. 3. As argued by Corrales (1999) resources invested in expanding the coverage of the education system produce visible gains for most actors and losses for very few, if any. On the other hand, quality reforms, aiming at improving efficien- cy and the academic performance of students, imply increased teacher productivity, penalising teachers’ inadequate performance and giving greater autonomy for schools; hence they imply real or perceived losses for some “insiders”, while their positive impact is less visible in the short term. Innovación Educativa, vol. 8 núm. 44 • julio-septiembre 35 Figure 1 Educational attainment of the working-age population. Population with at least an upper-secondary qualification, 2002*. * Per cent of each age group. 1999 for Hungary. Source: OECD, Labour Market Statistics Database. Figure 2 Student performance and enrolment rate at age 15.