Not many people know this, but the importance of education in Mexico is a huge problem. The government has a lot of problems when it comes to education because children keep dropping out of school from a very early age. The main reason why it is so hard to stop this phenomenon is because parents do not have enough money to send their kids to school. Another reason why the dropout rates are so high is because the population does not believe that a higher education will improve their lives. In Mexico there are five levels of education: preschool, elementary school, middle school, upper secondary school and university. Even though these levels are present, the governments made school compulsory only till 6th grade. After 7th grade you can choose if you want to move on or not. To encourage students to continue their studies, the government offers grants and scholarships.
According to recent polls, the importance of education in Mexico is high in all Mexican families. It is true that Mexicans believe that school is important in any person’s life, however statistics say that in reality things are totally different. There is a lack of students in middle school and upper secondary school. The biggest gap is in the rural area where children are not encouraged to go on with their studies because they have to work so they can help their families. In the last 50 years a lot of good things have happened, the number of children enrolling in preschool and primary school has doubled which is a step in the right direction. Even though there are large numbers of children enrolling, as they grow, they start dropping out. According to studies conducted by the government, over 50% of students drop out of school before they reach the 10th grade. The same studies show that only 8% of students have a bachelor degree.
Because the government is so concerned about the level of education in the country, it has developed three programs: Oportunidades, Programas Escuelas de Calidad and Enciclomedia. Oportunidades is a program which offers grants to poor families who have children ready to go to school. Programas Escuelas de Calidad and Enciclomedia are programs developed to help schools show the importance of education in Mexico.
As you can see the importance of education in Mexico is very high due to the fact that there are so few students enrolled in an educational institute. There is a lot of will coming from parents, but most of the time the lack of money keeps them from offering their children the chance to be in school and make a better life for them. If children would stop dropping out from such an early age their lives would surely change for the better.