A classroom with walls and a roof. Many don't have such luxuries.
As 26 million students returned to the classrooms today, President Peña Nieto promised them a gift: a 7.5-billion-peso investment in school facilities.
More than 20,000 primary and secondary schools will benefit from the funds, whose administration will differ from past practice. The president said local communities will decide for the first time in Mexican education history how the money will be spent, replacing the bureaucratic process of the past.
Individual schools will be able to respond more quickly to needs that arise day to day, he said. Teachers, directors and parents will be able to decide how to improve the organization and installations of their schools.
Schools will no longer have to endure slow bureaucratic procedures when a broken window needs replacing or a blackboard is required. Peña Nieto described it as a profound change that will allow the freeing of potential in each school so that everyone involved can contribute to improving education.
The funding comes with another historical first: what the schools do with the money will be published online, where an internet page will indicate improvements made, school by school.
The president pointed out that the funding comes as a direct result of the educational reform program. The spending is designed to address the needs identified by the Census of Basic and Special Education Schools, Teachers and Students, which found significant deficiencies in school facilities.
Also announced was expansion of the Full-Time Schools Program to include another 7,833 facilities, bringing the total to 23,182. Implemented in 2007-08, the program extends the school day from four hours to six, and in some cases eight.
It was introduced to improve learning opportunities and academic achievement.
Peña Nieto made the announcement during the official inauguration of the school year today. He was accompanied by Public Education Secretary Emilio Chauyffet Chermor and Juan Díaz de la Torre, president of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) who, it was pointedly noted in one report, did not make a speech at the event for the second year in a row.
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