Tomorrow's Schools in Mexico : Three Scenarios

The article begins with a description of Mexico's education in the greater context and describes its main problems with reference to the Millennium Development Goals and beyond. It identifies lack of equity and deficient quality as the two strongly related main problems in Mexican Education. It goes on to explain the causes of these problems: the way the educational system was expanded, from the more urban and developed regions to the more rural and indigenous; the importance given to coverage over quality during many years; the political nature of the power of the teachers' union; the strive towards cultural homogeneity and the assimilation of indigenous peoples to mainstream society, among others. It then describes three possible scenarios for the development of education: The first is more of the same; the second is improving equity as a priory in educational development, and the third is including, together with the purpose of increasing equity that of improving quality. This last scenario implies new ways of defining and operating the educational system, the teachers, the Mexican population, and the question of teaching. In each case, conditions, requirements and consequences are considered. It proposes that the desired future of the country is what should determine the role of education and its contribution to making it feasible.