Education in Mexico: Overview

Mexico still has enormous inequalities in the area of education, where over 2.1 million children and young people do not attend school. This group includes the handicapped, members of some indigenous ethnic groups, agricultural workers (who live in conditions of extreme poverty), and street children.  Among the biggest gaps in Mexico’s educational system are at the preschool and secondary school levels.[1]  Mexico also has a problem with dropouts, specifically among the lower income sectors where over 30% of the poorest population does not finish primary school, compared with only 3% of the highest income population.  Nationally, almost 8% of children between twelve and fourteen years of age are already working, and, of those, almost 80% belong to lower income households.[2] 

In the coming years, the challenge for the Mexican education system will be to develop strategies that encourage students to stay in school, especially at the junior high and high school levels because, in spite of a four-fold increase in investment, 85% of Mexico’s young people still do not finish high school.  Consequently, the percentage of Mexico’s population that is achieving a level of higher education is minimal.