The Agenda
Centralized system and its problems: The educational system in Mexico was highly centralized in 1990s. �By the early 1990s, 76 percent of public school students and teachers and 79 percent of the public schools were part of the national system. At this time, the federal government contributed some 80 percent of the total educational budget�. 1 � Throughout this period , curriculum and teaching materials were determined by Mexico City, as were hiring, promoting, and firing teachers, salaries of all personnel, the distribution of funds to local schools, and school location and construction activities.�1 Further, �the union gained from this system also, with centralization, its own power increased.�1 From 1950s to the 1970s various Mexican education ministers tried to break the stranglehold of the teacher union (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion [SNTE]) by attempting to decentralize the educational system and in setting up regional offices in the states . 1 However, the strong union resisted their efforts and �the union asserted its power over these regional offices and claimed ownership of the directors� positions.�1 Subsequent decentralization efforts in 1982, also met strong resistance from the centralized education ministry and union (SNTE). 1
Thus, the teacher union (and its supporters in the ministry) was the greatest impediment to educational quality reform efforts- with decentralization as its main plank.
The President�s initiatives:
When in 1988 Carlos Salinas became president of Mexico, he was interested in pursuing changes in the educational system. 1 �In championing change, however, Salinas faced a significant political dilemma. He was well aware that little could be done to improve the educational system unless the power of SNTE was reduced�. 1
Timing of reforms: Salinas was very careful in timing his reform initiatives. He waited till after the mid-term elections in 1991, after he had �secured 320 seats in congress, regained the two-thirds majority needed to pass important legislation. To add to this improved environment, the economy had grown by 3.4 percent in 1989 and 4.5 percent in 1990, a very positive experience after the difficult times of early and mid-1980s; growth continued into 1991�. 1
In the meanwhile, in April 1989, Salinas had been able to get the corrupt, all powerful and well entrenched boss (Mr. Jonguitod Barrios) of the teacher-union to resign and be replaced by Elba Ester Gordillo. 1 Gordillo was successful in bringing coherence and order in the union �by incorporating the dissidents and weakening the remnants of Joguitod�s machine�. 1
Thus, with a more amenable union leadership in place and a strong backing of the congress - Salinas, in his role as the president of Mexico was in a position to initiate reforms with least resistance from those institutions most likely to do so � the opposition political parties and the teacher-union.
The education reforms of 1992
�In 1992, the president of Mexico, Carlos Salinas, and his minister of education, Ernesto Zedillo, sat down with the leadership of SNTE, and governors of the country�s thirty one states to sign the National Agreement for the Modernization of Basic and Normal Education. This agreement, the culmination of a long-term effort to decentralize to the state level, restructured education decision making and implementation in the country. It gave governors responsibility for basic (preschool, primary and secondary) education and for normal school training of teachers�. Henceforth, states would receive annual educational grants from the federal government and could add additional revenue from their own resources if they wished�. 1
�The system also created a new career system for teachers, giving them opportunities for professional development and promotion not available earlier. Other innovations were a curriculum more focused on conceptual learning and bilingual education for indigenous groups. The career system would be managed by the central government, as would curriculum and the design and distribution of free textbooks. In addition, central administrators would continue to define training programs for teachers and school personnel, manage testing and monitoring of school performance, and set the basic salaries and working conditions for teachers. In addition, the number of years of compulsory education was increased, local school councils were mandated, in-service training of teachers was expanded, and the annual number of days of schooling was extended�. 1
Thus, the reforms had a good start, thanks to the proper timing and initiative taken by the country�s president and in his giving top priority to educational reforms. However, soon the reforms ran into difficulty due to faulty reform design, poor implementation of decentralization and renewed teacher-union opposition.
Faulty Reform design:
The design team: �At the outset of reform processes in Bolivia, Minas Gerais, Ecuador and Mexico, executive leaders appointed design teams to study the issues, define the problems, and then focus on finding the solutions to them. Who was appointed to the design teams, what tasks they were asked to take on, and how they carried out these activities were important determinants of the contents of reform initiatives� Their mandates derived from political leaders, but teams had considerable freedom in developing solutions to the problem, as they understood them� Moreover, how these teams decided to organize their activities � how open or closed their deliberations, with whom they consulted, what issues they were willing to negotiate, how they announced their recommendations, how they sought the commitment of political leaders � were important in generating the political support or opposition to their plans�.
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