Various aspects of the year 1992 education reforms in Mexico were handled at different levels. Decentralization was allowed to go forward by the agreement with the teacher-union (SNTE) and state governors. 1 Further, �the teacher career issue was dealt as part of the larger negotiation with the teacher-union, and curricular reform became the responsibility of a small team in the ministry of education�. 1 I discuss this team below.
Errors by the design team:
The design team was a bunch of technocrats, brought in from the ministry of programming and budgeting, by Ernesto Zedillo, the minister of education. Ernesto had been their boss earlier as the minister of programming and budgeting. 1
"Although well trained, they were often more skilled in the technical analysis than in understanding the complex political dynamics of the PRI regime. Most were imbued with a sense of mission to promote the modernizing vision of the president and the minister, and they believed they could take risks because of the support from these two impressive sources of power�. 1 A major task assigned to them was revision of the textbooks and making them up-to-date. The team did anticipate some conflict with regards history textbooks "as the aspects they wanted to change were related to deeply held beliefs by significant numbers of people in the population and by important actors, including the still powerful old guard of the PRI. Moreover, any retelling of history could easily challenge the beliefs of all those who had been educated with the older textbooks.�
1
However, the design team, "did not allow much consultation about the content of new materials and made critical choices about which texts - and which interpretations of history - would be adopted. In the event, the introduction of the new books was met with strong negative reaction that played out in daily newspapers, protests and meetings.� 1
In course of time, the new textbooks were re-written and then much to the embarrassment of the minister - were finally withdrawn. 1 The announcement of withdrawal of textbooks was made at the beginning of the school year causing much uncertainty to school teachers. 1
This issue highlights the inexperience of the design team in matters of politics and education reform. They could certainly learn from the experience of Bolivia, where an experienced reform design team was in place, under the able leadership of Amalia Anaya.1
Bolivia�s example: Amalia Anaya was the architect of Bolivia's education reforms in 1990s , who despite ups and downs in political support for her leadership of ETARE (the organization set up by the government in 1991, with help of World Bank , to study Bolivia's public school system and propose and implement reforms) was finally able to create a slow (spanning nearly a decade) but steady pace of educational reforms despite strong and continuous opposition from teacher-union and even ministry officials. 1
She made it possible due to various factors including her leadership abilities, her exposure to international conferences such the one World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. 1 Moreover, before initiating reforms, her team conducted an education census of schools, teachers and students to develop a �Basic Education Map� that allowed the planners to base their planning on more accurate data than available before. 1 Gradually it developed a �vision of reform,� which it presented to World Bank and other international donors who liked the proposal and provided further technical help and funds to initiate reforms. 1 Furthermore, she invited a wide range of people from various organizations, cutting party lines to join ETA! RE. They were instrumental in helping her garner support from various quarters including from different political parties in power from time to time. 1 Further, she supported popular grass-roots issues, such as bilingual education, which helped her get the support of indigenous political leaders as well, including that of her colleague at ETARE and future, indigenous, vice president of Bolivia. 1 Thus, �the reform had, remarkably, survived across three political administrations and, although Amaliya Anaya was out of government from time to time, many of her technical team (members) remained in office�. 1
In sum, though the pace of reforms in Bolivia was much slower compared to that of Mexico, due to lesser initiative by the Bolivian president. 1 However, the Bolivian reforms were well thought through. Also, they had been whetted by members of nearly all interests groups, due to Amaliya Anaya�s strategy of discussing the reform proposals with members of various organizations cutting across party lines. 1
Thus, Mexico could learn from the Bolivian education reform design team. However, Bolivia could learn from Mexico�s strategy of dealing with the teacher-union, which is discussed in the subsequent paragraphs.
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