Published November 10, 2011
Posted November 18, 2011 at 3:24pm
Summary
The average Mexican only attends school for 8 ½ years. Mexico, the next ranks dead last among the forty-one countries that participate in the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment. About 40% of Mexican 15- to 19-year-olds are completely disconnected from civil society and the legitimate economy; they have dropped out of school and are unemployed. Just like America, Mexico is coming up on a presidential election and surprisingly only one candidate, Marcelo Casaubon, identified the inadequate schooling of the typical Mexican citizen as one of the nations foremost economic, cultural, and social problems. Many realize that the added challenge is creating curricula that are relevant, respectful and engaging for Mexico’s 10 million indigenous citizens, who are especially at risk for dropping out of school.
Analysis
I am quite livid at the fact that Mexico, the next door neighbor to one of the richest societies in the world, could rank so low in the educational arena. While we fight useless wars, we should fight for education. My blogs over the course of this class prove that educational inequality is a global issue. Mexico needs to successfully reform education, putting their children in school to at least finish high school. This would be the bare minimum to know how to read Shakespeare, learn algebra or write a research paper. It is no wonder that they immigrate to America. We have more opportunities, which is one of the reasons that we learnt people tend to immigrate. Not only should Mexico reach for secondary education, higher education is critical. A competitive country needs diverse, well-educated citizens. As stated in the article, Mexico’s leaders should be held responsible. They need to stay ambitious and use education as a lever to move people out of poverty.
http://www.thenation.com/164520/mexican-education-war
3 comments:
While it is sad that Mexico is so low in education, it can't be the fault of neighboring countries, especially if they aren't willing to take the help. A lot of times other countries dont like to take help because they want superior countries like the U.S to see that they can do it to. But it is only a matter of time that things like dropouts and increased crime start to happen. But in situations like this, when we do have the tools and skills needed to help, it makes me sad that we aren't able to.
The US isn't ranked very high in the PISA scores either, so they might not want to accept help from us! I do agree that education needs to be addressed more, but sadly it is usually looked at as an easy place to cut costs. I mean, our children aren't important, are they? :)
I didn't necessarily say that is was America's fault; however, we do use them as cheap labor and we are not ranked last. My article states that the saddest part is that their government is really taking a stand. Dropouts and crime are already happening and we need to some up with some useful solutions. Dropouts cost each nation lots of money.
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