To increase the country’s productivity, boost economic growth and reduce social inequality, it is necessary to invest in the educational system, according to consulted experts.
During the last six-year term, the Government’s initiatives to strengthen education focused on providing universal scholarships, but this type of support is inequitable and does not align with the needs and growth objectives that the Country requires, considered the Center for Economic Research and Budgetary (CIEP).
“Evaluation and monitoring mechanisms must be established to ensure that scholarship resources are used efficiently and effectively,” the CIEP stated. Although the scholarships allocated to the poorest families in 2018 were 51 percent of the total and by 2024 they remained at the same level, support for the wealthiest sector rose in that period from 2 to 32 percent.
According to the policies of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), investing in education is key to growth, but Mexico has lagged far behind.
This is why Sheinbaum must reverse the downward trend in spending on educational institutions as a proportion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), since it showed a deceleration from 5.08 percent in 2015 to 4.17 percent in 2021. If the total spending per primary and secondary student, Mexico occupies last place among the 37 member countries. According to the OECD, the total expenditure per Mexican student in primary school was $2,933 in 2021, while in secondary school it was $3,130, which, in both cases, places the country in last place among the 37 members. of the OECD and shows a strong delay with respect to the average expenditure of 11,902 dollars in the first level and 13,324 dollars in the second. Marco Fernández, a specialist at Tecnológico de Monterrey, warned that one million 254 thousand students were lost with the pandemic. “One million 254 thousand students were lost due to the impact of the pandemic, but then, with the return to the classrooms, unfortunately only a very small proportion of that figure has been recovered at the end of the last Administration,” he indicated. According to the latest National Survey on Access and Permanence in Education (ENAPE) from the National Institute of Statistics (Inegi), another element that influenced the drop in enrollment was school dropouts, since students perceive that they are not learning. and that school is not for them. In that sense, Fernández highlighted two moments in which school dropout persists most: when the student moves from third grade to upper secondary education and in the first two years of high school or high school. “Under this reality, unfortunately today, of 100 girls and boys who begin primary school, only 28 of them finish their university studies,” said the specialist. He added that there is also a gap in learning, since through the report of the Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa) it was detected that six out of 10 Mexican students do not understand what they read and seven out of 10 have serious problems with operations math. Likewise, he suggested to the present Administration to make improvements in public schools, since four out of every 10 schools (whether primary, secondary or preparatory) register a lack of some basic service such as electricity or drinking water, while six out of every 10 schools lack from a computer with Internet access.
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