Poor scores, conditions overshadow country's education advances

By LAURENCE ILIFF, RICARDO SANDOVAL and BRENDAN M. CASE / The Dallas Morning News

One in an occasional series

As President Vicente Fox struggles to overhaul the Mexican economy and usher in a new democracy, the sad state of the nation's education system looms as one of the biggest challenges to his presidency.

Mr. Fox promised reforms and once called himself the education president. But a look around Mexico yields a mixed report card so far: advances like computers in the classroom contrast sharply against low attendance in the countryside, paltry teacher pay, outdated curricula and poor student performance.

Take the María Teresa Pinedo grade school in rural Zacatecas state, where on a recent school day half the students were absent.

Some skipped school to accompany their parents to work in the corn and bean fields. Others were out sick.

The remaining students were learning about shapes and colors in a class crowded with abundant crayons, books and educational games.

Yet the teacher complained bitterly about the lack of running water and bathrooms for her 21 kindergartners.

"The kids here have a lot of heart, and they really try," said Laura Villalpando, a veteran educator who drives two hours each day to reach her classroom. "But their
education depends on us, and we haven't done a good job for them."

As Mexican leaders struggle to wrench the country out of underdevelopment, Mexico is saddled with an antiquated educational system that's mediocre at best compared with those of other developing nations.

The educational shortcomings could cost the nation dearly. Economic competition is increasing around the world, especially from China, and Mexico can no longer
compete with low wages.

But with a public education system that teaches little more than mid-20th-century skills such as reading, writing, arithmetic and rote memorization, few students are
equipped to land skilled jobs, analysts said.

"A country without education is a country that won't develop, and our system is even worse than people say," said Isaac Katz, an economics professor at the
Autonomous Technological Institute, a private university in Mexico City. "No one is responsible for quality, results aren't measured and parents have no voice."

On average, Mexicans have a seventh-grade education. Half end their studies in their teens and join a vast unskilled work force in a nation where the minimum wage is $4 a day. Just two of every 10 kids go to college.

Studies by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 30 rich countries and advanced developing countries, have shown
Mexican students next-to-last in reading, math and science skills.

Many students are undernourished. Teachers routinely find second jobs to make ends meet. And some schools, including the María Teresa Pinedo in Lomas de
Guadalupe, Zacatecas, do without electricity or water.

Making progress

Mr. Fox has repeatedly said that few issues are closer to his heart than children and education. He once floated the idea of using the state-owned oil monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos to supplement education funding to the tune of $30 billion a year instead of dumping the oil revenue into the government's general till.

Such a plan now seems like pie in the sky as Mr. Fox struggles with a weak economy and pitiable tax collection.

Education Minister Reyes Tamez Guerra acknowledged that Mexico was a long way from rich countries in terms of helping its youth compete in a globalized world.
Mexico lags behind developing nations such as South Korea, Chile, Poland and Hungary.

Still, Mexico is making progress. New schools and universities have been built, even in traditionally neglected Indian communities. And the so-called e-Mexico program is designed to bring computers within reach of more poor kids.

Millions of new scholarships have allowed poor and gifted students to stay in school. Although they range from just $50 to $100 per month, the awards take pressure off students who might otherwise quit to work, Mr. Tamez said.

As a result, the average level of schooling among Mexicans has gone from 7.5 years when Mr. Fox took office in December 2000 to 7.7 years today, Mr. Tamez said. The goal is to reach an average of eight years by the end of Mr. Fox's term in 2006.

Meanwhile, federal spending on education has risen from 4.1 percent of the gross domestic product to 4.6 percent in the two years of the Fox administration, Mr. Tamez said. It now represents 26 percent of all federal spending, or about $38 billion.

"We can't be satisfied with the nation that we have, although we have made progress in certain areas," Mr. Tamez said at the Education Ministry. "That's why we have to focus on education. The commitment of the president, fundamentally, is education."

But few educators expect dramatic improvement overnight.

"Our country is going through a very difficult time economically, along with the rest of the world," said Juan Francisco Eguia Elorza, the director of Voca 9 high school in Mexico City. "This is really one of the better schools, and there is still much more to do. But we are on the right path."

The dedication of Mexican teachers and the sacrifices made by average students are both on display here, he said. Teachers volunteer their Saturdays and Sundays to help students catch up on tough subjects such as math and physics. Administrators teach class when teachers don't show up.

Like all Mexico City public high schools, attendance is based on test scores, not geography. Many students must often travel two or three hours each way to Voca 9.

Students on the early shift, which begins at 7 a.m., wake up well before sunrise to get to the subway trains and buses that ferry them to school. Afternoon students might not make it home until midnight.

Accountability issue

Another bright spot, analysts said, is a new program that takes a page out of U.S.-style proficiency testing.

Mr. Tamez is putting the finishing touches on the Educational Evaluation Institute, which would measure students' performances.

Experts praised the new transparency. But it remains unclear what other information authorities and union leaders will make public.

"No one knows if teachers are doing a good job or a bad job," said Mr. Katz, the economist. "Teachers and administrators are not responsible to kids and their parents. Their only loyalty is to the union. Union leaders decide where they'll work and how much they'll make."

Union leaders and some experts say the real problems are elsewhere.

Rural teachers typically earn a few hundred dollars a month, and often go to heroic – and unpaid – lengths just to get their charges to school. In Zacatecas, that means some teachers double as chauffeurs, ferrying students to and from school. Urban teachers fare only slightly better, with average salaries running $500 a month.

"The government even has a hard time delivering textbooks," said Carlos Muñoz, an education researcher at the Ibero-American University in Mexico City. "So it is no surprise that you also have poor teaching, poor facilities and, in the end, poor results."

Many teachers fear they're fighting a losing battle.

"There can be no higher priority in any nation than education," said Javier Alvarez Ramos, a teacher who serves as a spokesman for the National Union of Education
Workers, the largest union in Latin America with 1.35 million members.

Rural shortcomings

In rural Mexico, where some 25 percent of Mexico's more than 100 million people live, students on average get six years of schooling.

That's better than the four-year average that prevailed in the 1970s. But rural communities such as Casas Colorado, another remote farm village in Zacatecas state,
show the system's deep-seated shortcomings.

In Casas Colorado, migration to the United States has decimated the student body, and José Guadalupe's junior high class is down to four students.

Mr. Guadalupe has only four textbooks to teach with. He designs his own math exams. And he shares rickety tables with the students in a windowless concrete room that becomes a furnace in the midmorning sun.

Nevertheless, he remains.

"I'll be here teaching as long as there is a student who wants to learn," Mr. Guadalupe said. "I know these kids are making a special effort to come, especially since they could easily go to work."

Martín Flores, 13, is one of them.

"I would rather stay and study than go to work," said Martín, whose brothers did not finish high school and now work in the United States. "My parents ask me to work and earn money, but I tell them I want to finish school."

Still, the system is failing Martín.

The junior high is a so-called satellite school, which is supposed to get some instruction from central authorities via satellite television. But the school has neither a
television nor a satellite dish.

By contrast, the Voca 9 high school in Mexico City has several computer labs, some with air conditioning. Teachers get regular training at a computer lab of their own.

Preparing for workforce

Luis Antón Domínguez Nuñez, an 18-year-old senior at Voca 9, has hopes of going to college and working for an international automaker or electronics company.

"I don't think there is a lack of good jobs in Mexico," said Mr. Domínguez, who specializes in digital systems. "I think there is a lack of qualified people to fill them."

In a working-class neighborhood in Cancún, the University of the Caribbean is trying to change that. The college opened its doors in 2001, offering degrees in hotel
management, tourism, international business, gastronomy and industrial engineering.

"This is a university that fills a market niche," said Fernando Espinosa de los Reyes, the dean. "The majors we offer give students the skills they need to get good jobs locally."

This year, federal and state officials joined forces to give the university its own land and a new, $4 million building.

That made it the first public university to be built in a decade. Mr. Espinosa de los Reyes expects the student body to grow from 700 now to 5,000 by 2010.

Students hope to use their training to help themselves – and their country.

"My goal is to start my own company," said international business student Perla Romero, 21. "There are plenty of raw materials in Mexico, but we don't always have the know-how to sell the finished goods."

Otherwise, Mexico has little chance of breaking out of its underachiever status.

"This is a problem that goes way back," said Mr. Domínguez, the Mexico City high school student. "We need a change in culture."