Mexico Education and Science
Basic education
According to UNICEF, the Mexican nation has achieved important achievements in educational matters in recent decades [26] . Coverage in primary education in Mexico has become almost universal, representing an achievement of national public policy in recent years. This result has also been possible thanks to important advances in the production of data from the educational system, both through the annual implementation of the ENLACE test, which has led to the availability of a general measurement and diagnosis system on school performance at over time, such as through the information generated by the National Educational Information System.
Despite progress, significant challenges still persist in education. According to the 2007 National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE), there is still a significant number of children and adolescents between 5 and 17 years old in Mexico who do not attend school (the data collected reflects about 1.7 million children and 1.4 million million girls) [26] . It is estimated that of the population aged six to eleven, at the national level, between 1 and 2% still do not attend school due to agricultural work or due to physical handicaps [26] .
The reality of strong disparities and social exclusion in the country is still reflected in unequal levels of coverage in primary education, with important gaps in the preschool level and fundamentally in secondary and upper middle school, where a significant proportion of the poor sectors or more vulnerable does not access and many of those who enter cannot conclude. Likewise, there is inequality in the supply of the service provided in the different states, in rural and urban areas, as well as in private and public schools and within the latter: general schools, indigenous schools, community education and education for immigrants.
Higher education
In Mexico, according to Educationvv, there is a public higher education system governed by the Secretary of Public Education of the Mexican Government according to the Constitution of the Republic. The third article of the Magna Carta establishes the basic norm in education. Specifically, sections V, VI and VII outline what is related to higher education:
Article 3 or…
V. In addition to providing preschool, primary and secondary education, indicated in the first paragraph, the State will promote and attend all types and educational modalities including higher education necessary for the development of the nation, it will support the scientific and technological research, and will encourage the strengthening and diffusion of our culture.
SAW. Individuals may provide education in all its types and modalities. In those established by law, the State will grant and withdraw the recognition of official validity to the studies carried out in private schools.
VII. Universities and other higher education institutions to which the law grants autonomy, will have the power and responsibility to govern themselves; They will carry out their aims of educating, investigating and disseminating culture in accordance with the principles of this article, respecting the freedom of teaching and research and free examination and discussion of ideas; determine their plans and programs; They will set the terms of entry, promotion and permanence of their academic and administrative staff, they will be regulated by section A of article 123 of this Constitution, in the terms and with the modalities established by the Federal Labor Law, in accordance with the characteristics of the Federal Labor Law. of a special work, in a way that is consistent with autonomy, academic freedom and research, [27]
In addition to article 3 or constitutional, there is the General Law of Education that in the first article establishes that the educational social function of universities and other higher education institutions referred to in section VII of article 3. of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, will be regulated by the laws that govern said institutions. [27]
Among the universities that exist in Mexico, the following stand out for the quality of their classes:
- National Autonomous University of Mexico (the largest and most important in the country)
- University of Guadalajara
- Pontifical University of Mexico
Science and Technology
Mexico is one of the countries where less is invested in scientific and technological development worldwide. Investment in science and technology in Mexico is much lower than that of other Latin American countries with a similar level of development, which causes a lag in the matter, since while in Brazil 1 percent of the gross domestic product is allocated for these items, in the country the allocation in the past year was less than 0.4 percent [28] . Rosaura Ruiz, president of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, said in 2008 that the percentage of GDP allocated by the Mexican federal government to scientific and technological development is less than that of Chile, with 0.67, and Argentina, with 0.6 percent.
In a press conference that featured members of the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World (TWAS, for its acronym in English) in 2008, it was reported that compared to Brazil, Mexico lags behind in producing researchers, for while in Brazil 11 thousand doctors are graduated a year, in the Mexican nation only 2,300 do so [28] .
During a conference given by Ruy Pérez Tamayo, professor emeritus of the UNAM and Medal of Merit Universidad Veracruzana (UV) in 2004, to students in the Faculty of Biology of this university, he commented how this branch is forgotten by the federal government of Mexico:
Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, a long-term national science and technology policy was never established, although each government proclaimed two six-year programs for the development of science and technology, which were not fulfilled either.
Each of the presidents who have succeeded each other since those times have promised that at the end of their six-year term the budget for science and education would reach one percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while UNESCO has recommended that developing countries invest at least 1.5 percent of GDP.
In different six-year terms, the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) handled itself like a political booty and even had a general director who declared the following, I quote: ‘I don’t know anything about science and technology.’ And he proceeded to prove it convincingly for the next six years: his name was Edmundo Flores. [29]
The National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) is the governing body for scientific development in the country.
