12/03/2021
((News and Opinion))
On the crisis of public education in Mexico before and during the pandemic.
I am not against the work of teaching, in fact, education is a fundamental part of the development of any human community. The teaching and replication of behaviors that ensure our survival in the natural and social environment in which we live together with the curiosity to understand and explain what surrounds us has been the basis of human progress. Therefore, it is necessary to express that I am not against the teacher or his work, I am against a system that has favored those of us who have more economic resources for education in every sense of the word and indirectly led to the inefficiency of its system .
Even UNICEF in its article "An approach to Education for All based on Human Rights" recognizes that our educational system (or any other system in any other country) is not an isolated entity in the social structure. As expressed in Structural Functionalist thoughts [1], society is like a living organism in which all its systems interact with each other for its functioning, but just as the organism works together to function and survive, when one part This living being's failure affects all other systems and the low efficiency of the educational system is both a cause and an effect of the serious malaise of our system.
One of the things that the self-tortured mind of Augusto Comte [2] reflected after the ruthless French Revolution is that people live in a state of > referring to the lack of knowledge of the individual of various subjects that, for Positivist thought, “they are coordinated […] in the famous and indestructible classification of mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, sociology and morality” (Lagarrigue, 1905). His philosophy also explains that the dissemination and access to that knowledge would eradicate wars and evils in society, but as we will see later, access to quality public education has not been the norm in Mexico.
Mexican education in crisis, its causes and consequences:
It is essential to mark what UNICEF said in the aforementioned article: “Armed conflicts, AIDS [3], poverty, corruption and weak governments are factors that have a direct impact on education and on the strategies necessary to ensure that it is taught to all children ”(UNICEF, 2008). I can't help but think that 4 of the 5 points mentioned are fulfilled in a 20-year spectrum in Mexico. A literal armed war declared publicly against criminal organizations, a global pandemic that exceeds our already saturated health system, corrupt public officials and a poverty rate of 41.9% of the population in Mexico according to figures from Coneval in its 2018 studies, that is, that 52.4 million people lack some basic service, those 52.4 million people in Mexico are created a vicious cycle of poverty and lack of access to education since poverty means that people are not educated, but of course they are educated, they do not have competent opportunities in labor fields and they remain in poverty, the cycle repeats and worsens.
But this is not new, perhaps the pandemic is a new situation because no disease is the same, but poverty, the lack of interest in education on the part of our public servants and the lack of capital for public policies are not something new. Within the first chapter of the Historical Essays of Educational Reforms in Mexico (Galván, 2017) he points out the 5 macro processes through which Mexico walks throughout its history, but there are situations that are very similar to the current ones.
In the process of the Lancasterian Reform, (indicated as the third macro process by Galván) which covers from 1821 to 1845, the first modernization of the public sector educational system is presented, in which formal education on various subjects in together with a more varied educational plan and bodies are created that regulate and supervise the teachers' union and public education in general. That until in 1845, due to the situation of constant war and armed conflict in which Mexico was found, it was decided to pass all public spending on education to the military sector. Here it is important to point out the redistribution of government capital to generate a state of social harmony within the country as well as with external relations outside of it, this redistribution would exist in other processes and at present to favor public policies according to political and social ideologies of the president in turn, not necessarily to seek social harmony.
This brings me to the fourth macro process indicated by Galván, the Porfiriato Reforms. Many point out that Porfirio Díaz was the best president Mexico could have had because he brought modernization to the country and I cannot disagree more with this position, not only due to the lack of historical analysis of the applicants [4] since this modernization only It was within what Galván points out as the capital's plateau of the country, from there, the gap between social classes in the capital and mainly the south of the country worsens more and more.
The railway infrastructure built in the Porfiriato was only present on routes that went from the mines or farms to the country's ports or the capital. Even with an analysis of the educational policies promoted in the Porfiriato, which are the creation of rural schools, the promotion of high school, the promotion of artistic and physical education and the creation of the educational program by blocks, these actions fall short given the lack of interest of the government in education to favor policies in the economic sector.
It is uncomfortable to see that our current government is very similar to the Porfirian government in this aspect, the lack of interest in quality and accessible education (among other public policies such as health) of our current president to promote PEMEX, a company that each More and more it generates less economic returns and over time it is becoming obsolete, in fact, according to figures from Mexico Evaluates, in the second cash cutoff of the current government, of every 100 pesos collected by taxes, 46 pesos go to PEMEX, 3 pesos for education and only 1 peso for the health sector.
Favoring a monopoly company in the country that with each passing second becomes more obsolete in the country's economy [5] and leaving public policies such as education and health in the background and almost in oblivion are measures that do not generate well-being or growth, in fact they aggravate poverty by not giving the population tools to get ahead, as UNICEF points out, it is harmful and aggravates the cycle of poverty.
Our lack of infrastructure is what favors an inefficient education system even before the pandemic, creating anti-pedagogical environments with overcrowded classrooms that also favors the lack of payment to teachers (the main educational agents in the country) and the lack of educational material for knowledge such as Biology, Chemistry and Computing, skills required in the modern world and that can be an access route for economic development based on technology in the country and also help people to get better jobs.
It is necessary for me to point out the aspects that I consider failed in the country's public education even before the pandemic, because as with the health sector, there was already a state of insufficiency, inefficiency and non-compliance before it. But it would also be irresponsible for me to just talk about the inefficiency in public spending in the current six-year term when, from 2013 to 2018, there is a decline in public spending for education, falling from 3.7% of GDP to only the 3%.
It is also impossible for me to just point out the failures of the government when what we consider as the “Educational System” not only contemplates the legal framework, since as Galván points out, the education system is made up of three fundamental elements:
a) Formal Institutions: Within which are all the legal and institutional frameworks of education that create and regulate educational policies.
b) Informal Limitations: They are all those social processes internalized by the population and that are assumed as functional, these are all those customs, values and codes of behavior in which a society is governed.
c) The >: It comprises all the mechanisms by which compliance with formal norms or adherence to informalities in an institutional arrangement is induced.
It is also impossible for me to just point out the failures of the government when what we consider as the “Educational System” not only contemplates the legal framework, since as Galván points out, the education system is made up of three fundamental elements:
a) Formal Institutions: Within which are all the legal and institutional frameworks of education that create and regulate educational policies.
b) Informal Limitations: They are all those social processes internalized by the population and that are assumed as functional, these are all those customs, values and codes of behavior in which a society is governed.
c) The >: It comprises all the mechanisms by which compliance with formal norms or adherence to informalities in an institutional arrangement is induced.
This would end up marking even more the access gap to quality education that had been seen since the Porfiriato, since many of the private schools would use not only the ideological component to gain a solid space as an educational alternative, but could also generate students with greater competence in tasks for modernity, this in fact is seen even today not only in higher education but also within basic education, denoting that when a family is allowed access to private education it will generally have the purchasing power to give their children new tools for education.
This brings me both to the current context, my experience as a student and makes me return to the aforementioned article from UNICEF.
I have access to the internet and a fully functional computer with which I write this essay, but here I ask myself, what about those who don't? The actions of the education sector to teach classes remotely over the internet are applauded, but again, according to Coneval figures, almost half of the population does not have access not only to the internet, but also lacks access to a basic service such as water drinking water or access to basic health services, what do they do? "Do not confuse evil with ineptitude" was a phrase that I heard a long time ago and now I understand it, I cannot complain about the actions of the SEP because it works with what it can, but what I can point out in this essay are the historical situations that explain poverty and educational backwardness in Mexico so that these are not repeated.
We must also understand those who teach the classes and have direct contact with all of us, the teachers. Here I want to return to Galván and his description of the Porfiriato, since due to the lack of infrastructure for the new educational plans to be carried out, the teachers did not find out about these new measures or if they did and due to the lack of materials to teach This study plan the teachers had to give classes with what was already there as they consider correct, something similar happens now, several teachers are not so familiar with the use of the internet and ICT so they are not used or have many difficulties to use.
Our problems go beyond students who do not like virtual classes, but a good part of them do not have any means to access them, this in addition to the fact that several teachers are not familiar with the use of these new technologies.
What I want to point out with this essay is that although I have not had any problems with virtual classes, there is someone who does and the causes of these access problems go beyond what anyone can control, the economy, the lack of interest of the governments to create a better infrastructure for social development, the lack of knowledge of all sectors that participate in education for the same inefficient or almost non-existent infrastructure, but these problems are not recent, they are the consequence of a snowball of various factors that have caused it to almost become an avalanche.
Perhaps I am getting off the subject throughout this essay, but I cannot let go of the great inequality in Mexico that each historical event has worsened and increasingly opens the social gap for access to quality education. As I said, Covid-19 did not bring a crisis, it only signals it and exacerbates it, it is never too late to fix the mistakes made by everyone to improve the quality of life situation in Mexico.
I cannot provide solutions to the country's public education system, it is not my responsibility because I have neither the authority nor the legislative knowledge to carry out these types of actions, but I can point out the areas to be solved in this system that favors those who have more and indirectly leaves those who do not in the background.
Nor do I raise the need for absolute equality, but I do want to emphasize the need for a system of equity in which each individual gets ahead based on their ability and talent.
Knowledge is a powerful weapon for development but it must be available to everyone so that our society improves and leaves that state of > indicated by the positivists.
This is a priority and fundamental debate for our society, access to quality education results in the search for more and better knowledge that contributes to the growth of our society, but we must ensure that the same knowledge is available to the greatest quantity. possible people to be truly beneficial.
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[1] Current sociological thought of the twentieth century mainly exposed by Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton that expressed the extent of social harmony is formed through the natural and organic interaction of all social groups
[2] Considered the father of Positivism and scientific sociology. In 1826 he was admitted to an asylum where he spent a year of his life, he left the clinic with a diagnosis that classified him as >
[3] Note that the article was written in 2008, so there were still repercussions from the pandemic of that disease, but this can be transferred to any pandemic disease such as Cholera, Ebola and in our current context: Covid-19
[4] Since within 30 years of the mandate of Porfirio Díaz around the world the ideals of the French Revolution spread and the importance of modernization was expanded by the Industrial Revolution whose nucleus was found in England, therefore, It was not the actions of the president that brought modernization, in fact, many of the railways already existed since the government of Empress María Carlota but these were not concluded, so it is inferred that Don Porfirio was only a means of access , not the main factor for modernization.
[5] According to figures from Conducef, 72% of jobs and 52% of the country's GDP are generated by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Not by PEMEX.
[6] The author indicates that there is no reliable translation of the word into Spanish, and that although it has similarity with which means punishment, it should not necessarily refer to a punitive action but rather refers to the force to comply with the rules.
[7] Within the Colonial period of New Spain, it was normal for the indigenous people to receive public education from the Jesuit friars since they saw it as an evangelizing work, but many of these friars also made up the strong union of private teachers who taught classes. Creoles and Spaniards who had the resources to give their children a private education.
