Politics: Mexican educational system stymied by mistaken government policies
Educational policy and programs have played a key role in the public battle between proponents and opponents of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s Fourth Transformation (4T), which openly declares its aim to radically transform Mexican society. The Education Reform of 2013 pushed by then-President Enrique Peña Nieto centered on the need to promote high quality education as a necessary tool to prepare a new generation of Mexicans to compete in an increasingly globalized and technologically driven world. For AMLO supporters, the constitutional reform package was the incarnation of much-maligned neoliberal policies, aimed at boosting the options of the privileged few at the expense of the majority of poor, working class and peasant Mexican youth. The reform proposal was attacked as technocratic and favoring corporate interests.
With AMLO and the 4T in power, the new education reforms seek to reverse the gains of the 2013 policies. But the rationale behind AMLO’s proposal is not to make Mexico competitive in the 21st century, particularly given the educational gap with other OECD countries, but rather is ideological in nature and populist in content. Instead of the teaching profession being merit based, the current administration seeks to revive the long-standing practice of allowing the leaders of the two unions in the teaching sector to have a say in hiring and other decisions, naturally in exchange for political support.
The fact is that education has not been considered a priority by the AMLO administration, and many cutbacks have been applied. This is despite advances in scholarship programs aimed at youth from low-income backgrounds.
The situation has been exacerbated by the effects of the COVID pandemic. Mexico’s public schools were closed longer than in most countries, for 17 months, or two school calendar years. Although the Ministry of Public Education implemented its Learn at Home Program via TV and internet, the results were uneven and limited, largely because of the disparities between the rich and poor in terms of household access to the internet and the unemployment triggered by the pandemic, which forced many young people into informal employment to help support their families.
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