Special Report on Mexico: School reformer wins high marks
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.WHEN Mexico's 22 million schoolchildren return to their classes this autumn, many will find brand-new textbooks awaiting them. The old standard texts, with their socialist, anti-American slant, will be consigned to the dustbin. In their place will come crisp new books with an emphasis on reading, writing and arithmetic.
The revised textbooks are part of sweeping education reforms announced last month.
The man behind the changes is Ernesto Zedillo, 40, the Secretary of Education. Before taking up his post in January, Mr Zedillo played a key role in turning Mexico's economy around as the planning and budget chief - the job Mr Salinas did in the previous administration. If he makes a success of it, he could be in line for the presidential nomination in 1994.
'We have modernised our industrial and trade policies, we are undertaking very important reforms in agriculture and we have put our public finances in order, but we will run a big risk of failing in all these reforms if we don't have the proper human resources,' Mr Zedillo said. Mexico has been very successful at attracting assembly plants, but hi-tech investment that requires a skilled workforce has been slow in coming. With its new education policy, the country hopes to become more competitive.
The eventual aim is to shift responsibility for schooling from the federal government to the 31 states, which in future will train their own teachers and negotiate pay. 'There was a need to undertake a total reorganisation of the educational system in order to avoid the inefficiencies that arose from excessive centralisation,' Mr Zedillo said.
Besides a new emphasis on teacher training and a commitment to improving teachers' salaries - which stand at roughly three times the minimum wage - the government has also sent a bill to Congress to make secondary school compulsory. Although primary school is mandatory, around 10 per cent of children in Mexico never attend, and five to 10 million children work illegally out of economic desperation.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments