After a summer of bad publicity about education reform protests and textbook gaffes, another problem looms on the horizon for Mexico’s education system. Mexico’s universities are becoming increasingly overcrowded, and those excluded from attending are demanding their right to higher education.
Victor Mendez, 19, is one of the hundreds of thousands of high school graduates turned away from Mexico’s public universities this summer. The schools are so overcrowded that only those applicants with the very highest grades and exam scores are accepted. Upon receiving a rejection notice, young people often have nowhere to turn for higher education: private universities are too expensive for most Mexican families.
Victor, like many others denied admission, is from a working class family in a poor town outside of Mexico City. He is the first in his family to have the opportunity to pursue college, but now his ambitions are frustrated.
“It’s very important for me to be able to get ahead, for the country to grow socially and economically,” he says. “But they exclude you more every time.”
Mexico ranks last in the percentage of students seeking bachelor’s degrees among all countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Only 12% of Mexican students in their 20s are in school, less than half of the average of OECD nations.
The situation is dire for many Mexican young people. A population boom has flooded the job market with workers, and without a university degree, a dead-end job paying up to $100 a week is often the only option available.
A bachelor’s degree would nearly guarantee them a much better job, and the chance to own a home and car.
After weeks of education protests this summer, officials have opened 1,000 more slots at the three main public universities in Mexico City. Victor Mendez is one of the students fighting for an opening.
“You have to struggle,” he affirms. “To get a job you need an advantage.”
Creative Commons Love: ismael villafranco on Flickr.com
Written by Carla Drumhiller Smith