Departamento de Investigaciones Educativas, Cinvestav. México

1. Departamento de Investigaciones Educativas, Cinvestav. México Consejo Mexicano de Investigación Educativa Education and training for the workforce. Lessons from Mexico for preparing for unequal labor markets and real-world jobs Maria de Ibarrola WERA/AERA May 4, 2010

2. 1. World class educational policies • 1989. Mexico into the XXIst Century • NAFTA / OCDE • The Modernization of Mexican education. • Towards a 15 grade compulsory education • Diversification of Higher education • The Modernization of Technical and Vocational Education • “World class graduate education and research”

3. 1.1 The mainmechanisms • Actual increase in enrollment at all levels, creation of different types of schools and profitting from ITCs for distance education 1 • “Competencies” based education • Educational aims at all levels: from preschool- to higher education to be defined and understood in terms of “competencies” • Evaluation, mainly of standard performances, national and international: • PISA, TIMS, Enlace, Excale • Budget assignement strictly linked to results as evaluated • Teachers (Individual level): income increases through merit pay and specific monetary stimuli after performance evaluation of teachers and their students. • Institutional level: additional institutional budget subject to results of teachers and students • Researchers become members of a National System through peer reviewed academic productivity and are entitled to a significant part of their income through a scholarship

4. 2. A fussy and stubbornreality, someexamples • About 50% of youngsters 15-24 are out of the school system; 35 million adults and young adults have not acquired the basic compulsory education.6 • 1994: The FZLN launches an ideological (and paper) war • The debate on intercultural education • Young Mexicans PISA competencies for the knowledge society are among the lowest results for OECD countries 7 • High internal inequality among regions and school modalities • The failure of the PMTyC • Student career choices

5. Distribution of higher education students in the different knowledge areas (%)

6. The selection of the selected professions in the labor market

7. 3. Actual debate on the XXIstCenturytransformation • Not only economic but demographic, cultural, social and political transformations. • Changes in the world of work • Mexico’ labor markets • The skills of the labor force 11 • Growth of the “informal labor market” 12 • Informality and precarious jobs within the formal sector • The struggle for low qualified jobs: • Street and “Street corner” economy • Not enough jobs for the better qualified young people. • Migration • Graduate students in Mexico and abroad Brain drain ( new fashions) • Underemployment • Schooling plays an actual role in the compensation of work in all labor sectors 13

8. 4. Dilemmas and tensions Mexico faces • In spite of “world education policies”, the country is not having a steady development • Nevertheless, Schooling is meaning an important difference in socioeconomic position in the country • Is it the quality of education achieved? National scandals and debates detonated by PISA’s results • Underpaid teachers? • Is it the fault of the National Union of Teachers? • Mexicos resulNot enough budget? • ts correspond exactly to Mexico’s place among the development rank, so, should we change the development rank?

9. A verypainful impasse… • General lack of consensus on where should education aim. • and how to reach it. • Schooling is not “ the variable”, manipulable at will, that will detonate economic development. • Schooling and education beyond schooling should be integrated to a national projetc where the search of equality should be the first aim: • A more equitative income distribution • A far deeper intercultural reality than what was generally thought