[Assam] Part 2--lessons from Mexican education refrom

[umesh sharma]

This highlights the much poorer quality of schooling in rural areas and for poorer students.

 

Further, I compare the performance of students from urban, rural and indigenous populations in the subsequent paragraphs.

 

Table 4: Percentage of Variation of Student Achievement in a Spanish Test in Fourth Grade Explained by Differences Between Schools for Urban , Rural, Indigenous, and Remote Rural Schools in the South of Mexico

Type of School	Lowest Score	Highest Score	Average	Standard Deviation	% Explained by differences  between schools
Rural-remote	0	86.8	39.2	19.1	66
Indigenous	0	89.5	32.3	18.7	69
Rural	0	81.6	35.8	16.6	49
Urban	0	84.2	47.4	15.4	20

Source: Reimers (2000)

 

In table 4 above, comparing the achievements of students in a national test for Spanish for grade 4, we find  that on an average the urban students score (47.4% ) significantly more than rural (35.8%), indigenous (32.2%) and rural-remote students(39.2%.)

 

Thus, we see that there are substantial urban-rural and rich-poor divides on the issue of educational access and quality. I discuss the causes for the same below and the government�s policies initiated to remove these differences through compensatory programs.

 

 

 

 

 

Analysis of the causes of variation in student attendance rates, student achievement rates and school completion rates:

 

 Part of the variation in student achievement may be explained by the differences in the quality of school resources provided to schools in different locations as seen in table 5 below.

 

Table 5: Percentage of classroom characteristics by type of school in Mexico

Characteristic	Urban Private	Urban Public	Rural	Indigenous	Community Rural
Poor lighting	9	27	21	34	38
Desk for all students	99	82	74	49	63
Some desks in disrepair	30	80	78	83	66
More than 25% of the desks in disrepair	2	27	29	36	16
Blackboard in good condition	74	34	34	25	44
No bookcase	26	76	70	83	61

Source: Reimers(2000) Unequal Schools Unequal Chances

 

 

Table 5 shows that urban private and urban public schools have far better school facilities compared to rural and indigenous schools. Only 49% of indigenous schools have desks for all students compared to 82% for urban public schools and 74% for rural schools. Similarly, in indigenous schools only 25% schools have blackboards in good condition compared to 34% for rural and urban public schools and 74% private urban schools.

 

Further, in Mexico, the differences in student �achievement levels tended to be positively related to the family�s socioeconomic level. Related to this, poor nutrition of the children also seems to be related to low achievement levels. Children in bilingual schools has especially low nutrition indicators, though children with low nutrition were also in urban strata. Possibly related to their low nutritional levels, a high proportion of fourth-grade students in bilingual schools failed some course. The illiteracy rates of the parents �and to a greater degree that of mothers � of the students in rural and bilingual schools is a variable that clearly intervenes in the achievement of the investigated schools. The indicators corresponding to the parents and to the mothers of the students are 9 p! ercent and 11 percent, respectively, in urban schools; 15 percent and 14 percent, respectively, in rural schools; 11 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in bilingual schools; and 15 percent and 27 percent, respectively, in the community courses�(Izquierdo, Sanchez, 2000: Reimers, 2000)

 

Thus, some differences in student achievement, for various categories of students, are caused by school quality and the student�s socio-economic background matter a lot.

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