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The following OECD assessment and recommendations summarise Chapter 2 of the Economic Survey of Mexico 2005 published on 12 September 2005.
Improvements in educational outcomes are a priority
Over the past decades, Mexico has made great progress in increasing school enrolment in a context of tight budgets, rapid growth of the school-age population, great linguistic diversity, sizeable internal and two-way cross-border migration flows, and a high degree of extreme poverty. There has been a deliberate increase in public spending on education; but while the volume of educational services has increased, there are doubts about whether the additional funding is actually delivering the expected improvements. Both the coverage and quality of education services remain far behind OECD best practices even though, on paper, average teacher-pupil ratios are not out of line. And the system is not able to prevent poverty from reproducing itself from one generation to the next. Many children, especially the poor ones, still drop out before completing compulsory education and school-leavers have poor literacy and numerical skills. Oportunidades has shown itself to be an effective programme in reducing poverty, improving education, nutrition and health and reducing drop-out rates. It should continue. Beyond that, there is much to be done in improving the quality of outcomes and access to higher education.
Spending per student up to 15 and PISA results in 2003
Source: OECD, Learning for Tomorrow's World: first results from PISA 2003; OECD, Education at a Glance (2004).
Educational resources need to be better allocated...
Teachers’ pay absorbs a high proportion of total education spending by international comparison, while spending on infrastructure and teaching aids is low. Enciclomedia is a good effort to improve the quality of education through technology and information systems in primary schools. It may also represent an incentive for teachers to raise their skills. Nevertheless, a larger share of additional resources should go to non-wage items, where the needs are the most acute. Resource allocation across the country is mainly supply driven, with schools in low-income areas suffering from both lack in public infrastructure and less qualified teachers, thereby compounding difficulties stemming from students’ disadvantaged background. The allocation of federal grants across states, and of spending within states, should be more closely related to numbers of school-age children. The on-going compulsory generalisation of preschool raises concerns. Preschool is a powerful tool to address learning inequities due to children’s social background, but the legal obligation to provide 3 years compulsory pre-school education may well divert scarce resources from secondary education, where the number of students is rising rapidly, and where attainment standards are unsatisfactory. Moreover, potential gains will only materialize if the preschool system is of good quality, which is not yet the case, and reaches those who really need it. Therefore, the scope of the programme should be limited, focusing only on the last grade of preschool or targeting the areas where preschool is most needed – i.e. for children from low-income (and generally low-education) families.
Distribution of total and current expenditure on educational institutions1
By resource category in primary, secondary and post secondary non-tertiary education
1. In 2001. Brazil: 2000; Argentina: 2002.
2. Public institutions only.
3. Excludes post-secondary non-tertiary.
4.The breakdown of compensation of teachers and compensation of other staff is not available.
Source: OECD, Education at a Glance (2004), Table B6.3.
… and value for money could be improved
Only the younger generation of teachers has academic and/or vocational training. Teaching methods often rely on rote learning though modern curricula are being implemented. .. Actions are needed to: i) further improve the selection and training of teachers; ii) introduce teaching standards that foster comprehension skills and communication; iii) better match curricula with student and labour market needs; and iv) find alternatives to the systematic use of class repetition which is an inefficient way to correct lags in learning. Moreover, Mexico has yet to introduce efficiency enhancing policies. More responsibilities should be given to schools to adapt to local conditions and needs. This has been done mainly with quality schools (escuelas de cualidad), whose scope and material means are limited. A key step was accomplished with the creation of INEE (Instituto Nacional de Evaluación de la Educación), but to reap the benefits of evaluations, results must be used broadly to influence policy decisions, school management and users’ choice. Finally, sanctions for teachers’ absenteeism and overt incompetence should be set up and enforced and the main financial incentive scheme has to be made more efficient. Since the needed changes would likely affect teachers’ interests, such reforms would probably be opposed by the very powerful teachers' union. Continuous dialogue with the union should be envisaged to encourage them to become partners in raising educational standards and outcomes, rather than actors defending current practices and entrenched interests.
Educational reforms lack strategic vision
The authorities at the federal government and state level are aware of the weaknesses of the educational system, and some reforms have been launched to improve its performance and accountability. However, these efforts are spread across many programmes with sometimes conflicting priorities. In some states, interesting experiments are taking place to improve quality and efficiency, reflecting successful negotiations with the local sections of the teachers’ union. The next step should be to evaluate these experiences and find ways to generalise the most successful ones to other states. To facilitate implementation, the required reform should be launched as a package, mixing measures with an immediate and visible impact with deeper efficiency- and quality- enhancing reforms which have more diffuse benefits and are likely to raise opposition. Once they are well informed, parents could also contribute by putting pressure on the authorities and teachers for a higher quality education for their children.
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For further information please contact the Mexico Desk at the OECD Economics Department at webmaster@oecd.org. The OECD Secretariat's report was prepared by Bénédicte Larre, Stéphanie Guichard and Isabelle Joumard under the supervision of Nicholas Vanston.
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