Breaking the public-private divide in education: Experiences from affluent and disadvantaged upper-secondary colleges in Mexico City

Azaola, Marta Cristina (2018) Breaking the public-private divide in education: Experiences from affluent and disadvantaged upper-secondary colleges in Mexico City. In Breaking the public-private divide in education. The perspectives of affluent and disadvantaged upper-secondary students in Mexico City.

Abstract

Upper-secondary schooling in Mexico acts as a socio-cultural filter despite being made compulsory since 2012. In the academic year 2013-2014 only 54.8% of youngsters between 15 to 17 years of age were enrolled. School dropout is the highest of the Mexican education system as a whole (14.8% in the academic year 2012-2013) and only 47% of enrolled students manage to graduate. It could be argued that those who access and accomplish this level are already privileged regardless of the type the school they attend. Although in Mexico, as in many other countries, private schools of good quality are for the privileged sectors of society and public schools of lesser quality tend to cater to the working-classes. Through semi-structured interviews conducted in four private institutions and two public institutions, this study explores the traditional public-private school divide from the point of view the students and staff. Ten students and seven senior-staff participated in the interviews. The preliminary findings show a willingness of collaboration across schools in order to break the current social divide permeating the school system in Mexico. Recommendations for policy and practice are also explored.

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Contributors

Author: Marta Cristina Azaola

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