In Mexico, the real war on crime should be given in the field of education, but that the enemy is within the government itself
Basically, there was no error
If someone has dyslexia or does not all their attention on the text you are reading, can make the mistake that Professor Elba Esther Gordillo, national president of the National Union Education Workers (SNTE) on Monday August 24 at the ceremonial start of the school and at the time to sue a vaccine against a pandemic that it is wrong, saying instead influence of influenza virus A virus AHLNL H1N1.
But perhaps there was no error and Mexico, indeed, has long had his teachers not to vaccinate against influenza, but against the influence of an old virus, corrupt and authoritarian corporatism, which is largely responsible for Today the teachers be more effective as political structure and interest group as a transmitter of knowledge needed by students of primary and secondary schools to participate urgently success in a highly competitive global market.
few decades ago, South Korea, devastated by war, was in a situation of economic and political underdevelopment similar to Mexico, but today that Korea is a country with a per capita GDP more than double than ours and large extent, its success is due to the excellence of its educational system. In the comparative figures published in 2006 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on the results of the test designed by the Program for Student Assessment, or PISA, for its acronym in English, Korea was in first place among 56 countries as regards the capacity reading of students aged 15 and fourth in regard to the domain of mathematics, however, Mexico was in places 43 and 48 respectively.
The economic importance of education
In its edition of 10 to 17 August this year, Newsweek devotes a section to examine the problem of global education. The central thesis is striking: the negative economic effects of poor education are worse than the recession or economic downturn now plaguing the world. And the outstanding example is the United States. According to estimates published in a report by McKinsey April this year, the annual cost to the U.S. economy that secondary education does not have the quality that is the Korean equivalent to 9 percent and 16 percent of its GDP. And if that is the cost to our northern neighbor, whose average education is better than ours, what is for Mexico? How much is this the value of what was lost by the poor quality of education? Not only would any organization or party interested in Mexican education reform do you charge to McKinsey calculation to see if there is the incentive we need to start changing.
strategic investment that the government now intends to make cuts in public spending as a result of fiscal crisis, the rector of the UNAM has spoken out against any reduction in the budgets of public universities as their long-term economic consequences will be higher than the alleged savings, and rightly so. However, what the study published by Newsweek found is that if investment in education in general is good business for any country, the investment made to correct the quality of elementary education is actually better, but of all social investments optimum will be made in the education of marginalized sectors and areas, those who currently have the worst public education for all those available. Mexico
dedicated to educating more than 5 percent of GDP and international figures taking 2005 is that this is an even greater than that spent on the oft South Korea, then why is get results so different? Part of the answer is that, in dollar terms, spending is double that Korean Mexican but the real answer, in substance, is the quality of teachers.
was signed in 2008 between the federal government and the SNTE Alliance for Quality Education. But where to get the quality? Which teachers? Not long ago we learned that after application National Review of Knowledge and Skills Teachers to 123 000 856 applicants, of whom 35 percent are teachers in the 74.9-percent simply did not approve it and pass it to reach a score did not require excessively high. According to reports, among those tested was 6 000 552 teachers who were already over 20 years of service but wanted to regularize their status. Well, in that classroom full of veterans of the 4000 plane 913 are not redeemable or must "train" to achieve the minimum acceptable level (La Jornada, August 24). This means that those who had made a career of teaching and were evaluated, by coincidence, also 2 / 3 parts were not suitable for the job. Of course you can not extrapolate the numbers of failures to the entire universe from which those over 6 000 teachers who have been two decades educating children and youth have the right skills for it, but the numbers do not cease to be a indicator, and very revealing of what is behind the failure of the assessments made by the PISA.
From 'drug war' a war against ignorance
The Newsweek article quoted one conclusion stands out: a high quality education is not only good business but also one of the best ways to "create citizenship "and to combat crime early.
From the standpoint of immediate political gain, it is understood that just arrived at "Los Pinos" Felipe Calderon's military dress and a spectacular launch "drug war"-the right always has a weakness for the strong hand imposed law and order "to secure legitimacy pinned after unclear how that is supposed to win in 2006. However, a somewhat less spectacular but more effective to deal with crime and social deterioration in general, have been declaring war on poor primary and secondary education have started a real revolution in education to route to Mexico the Korean way. Clear that a "war on poor education" only show visible results in the long term, ie one's own business is a statesman and not a mere politician, but it would have had much legitimacy among parents, keenly aware of children living disaster.
A fight to the poor quality of education in primary and secondary levels would give the government immediate profits but would have a cost: the confrontation with the SNTE, ie, it would challenge the "influence" of one of the political forces made possible the kind of electoral victory that brought Calderón to the presidency. However, we must recall that it once was in Mexico a political movement major who tried, quite successfully, to cement its legitimacy, or at least a part of it, by transforming the formal education system. It was with the government of General Alvaro Obregon (1920-1924) and under the intellectual and political leadership of José Vasconcelos, the Mexican Revolution began truly constructive stage. The battle for education proved to be one of the ways in which those revolutionaries were presented as genuine social transformers.
The obvious solution as impossible
All specialists are aware of the enormous economic and social benefits that can bring a well-directed investment in the field education. However, almost everywhere, not just in Mexico, the vested interests, including unions, make it very difficult to change the inertia that reward and punish bureaucratic spirit innovative.
In theory, the best teachers should provide their services in the elite schools but in areas of human development indices lower. Unfortunately that has been achieved only in extraordinary moments, revolutionary, and for a time not too long, when in the name of a major national sacrifice appeals to young people and the best, and when the leaders set the example. Today, in Mexico, this spirit is simply impossible. The dominant social and political logic is powerful mix of corruption and market. De Vasconcelos only the memory remains in the best.
0 comments:
Post a Comment