Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Education in Mexico
Mexico has been steadily improving in the education field. Numbers have risen
drastically since 1950 to the 2015-2016 school year with the amount of people that have
enrolled in school. In 1950, there were 3.25 million students and by 2015 there were 36.3
million students attending school. Policies have been recently changing in the past few
years, which definitely made a contribution to the success in the school systems. In 2004,
the policy that everyone receives one year of preschool had been made mandatory
nationwide. Then in 2012, it was made mandatory that all students complete upper-
secondary education. This is twelve years of elementary and secondary study. These
elements have definitely been a major help with education. By placing students in
preschool and through the end of upper secondary education, this follows the policy of
the UN Global Education Initiative of putting every child in school. These policies have
had a huge impact on how many students complete school. According to the World Bank
website, the percentage of the completion rate for students has increased steadily over the
years. In 2008, 95.4% of the population completed school. However, by 2010, 104.7% of
the population completed school. This is a pretty big increase with practically everyone
completing grade school in 2010. The literacy rate has also been improving over the
able to read and write. This goes along with the second factor to improve quality of
learning. You can see from the percents that the quality of learning is increasing in
Mexico because more and more people are becoming literate. In 2010, 93.07% of the
population was literate and by 2014 94.56% of the population was literate. You can see
Melissa Geffken Education in Mexico 2
that the numbers are increasing, which can be a sign of the improvement in education
The school system that is required for students, has been pretty constant. As stated
before, each child gets one free year of preschool. Following that, they attend primary
school. This is for six years and goes from grades 1 to 6. The National Institute for
Assessment of Education monitors the standards at these schools. After this, the students
move on to lower secondary education. This is from grades 7 to 9. The requirement to get
into lower secondary schools is typically to have completed primary school and some
schools also give entrance exams. Unlike primary school, the State Department of
Education decides subjects and content that is taught at these schools. Following 9th grade
comes upper secondary education. This is grades 10 to 12. Upper secondary education
has been mandatory for all students since 2012. When a student attends one of these
schools, there are different options. There is SEP controlled schools, state controlled
controlled by a part of the federal government. SEP stands for the Secretariat of Public
policy and school standards. Standard exams are used for admission into SEP schools.
Once a student completes 12th grade, they have the choice to move onto higher education.
The percentage of students attending a university, in Mexico, has also been increasing
over the years. In the 2015-2016 school year, 3.6 million people have been attending
universities. 70% of the universities are public and a lot of them are highly recognizable.
The recognition of these schools shows how the quality of education has been improving.
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Some of the schools in Mexico have been looked at as Ivy League level and have
obtained a lot of respect and prestige. The admission into these types of schools depends
on a students grade point average and their scores on entrance exams. Overall, you can
see that more and more people have been attending schools and the rate of education has
been increasing. Since the policy came about that makes it mandatory for every child to
attend school until 12th grade, you can see an improvement in learning. From the
percentages, you can see that the amount of people completing school has risen along
Over the past few years, one can see how the status of education has improved in
Mexico. It seems as if the country as a whole, has been putting a lot of effort into the
education system, which has had a positive impact. More and more people are attending
and graduating school and even moving on to higher education. Even though over 50% of
expanding. Colleges in Mexico have been improving their quality of learning for their
students by being recognized across the world as being prestige schools. This is attracting
more and more people to attend these schools, which in return is helping improve the
education system.
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Works Cited:
Pictures:
Primary completion rate, total (% of relevant age group). (n.d.). Retrieved March 29,
locations=MX&view=chart
All products require an annual contract. Prices do not include sales tax (New York
residents only). (n.d.). Mexico - Literacy rate 2015 | Statistic. Retrieved March 29,
Alman, S. (1970, January 01). MEXICO. Retrieved March 29, 2017, from
http://shantalaleman.blogspot.com/2015/10/mexico_27.html
Websites:
Maganizer, J. (2016, August 16). Education in Mexico . Retrieved March 29, 2017, from
http://wenr.wes.org/2016/08/education-in-mexico
http://www.classbase.com/countries/Mexico/Education-System