Breathe
By Fátima Masse
A good teacher can change a student's life. I am convinced that most of us have in our memories a teacher who made a mark on us throughout our educational experience. Someone who inspired us, gave us a tip to make us feel more confident, taught us in a clear way some subject that we now love or contributed to our discipline. However, for the Federal Government it seems that teachers are the weakest link in educational communities.
"While in 2017 the average budget for the continuing education of each teacher was one thousand pesos per year, by 2024 it will be 96 pesos" according to Fernando Ruiz, a researcher for Mexicanos Primero, in an interview for the Reforma newspaper. This implies a 90% drop in the per capita budget allocated to teacher training when we are living unprecedented educational challenges.
Mexico is going through a severe educational crisis that national and international organizations have warned about. A crisis that is partly due to the prolonged closure of schools during the pandemic, which exacerbated inequality and challenges such as school dropout or low academic performance. For example, the discouraging picture shown by the PISA 2022which measures what 15-year-old students can do with the learning they have acquired.
In addition to this situation, the Federal Government decided to reverse the educational reform of the previous six-year term, which seeks to transform the way in which education is taught in our country, so that it has a community focus, although basic skills such as mathematics and science are neglected. a community approach even though basic skills such as mathematics and science are neglected.. Unfortunately, this counter-reform has been carried out abruptly, without planning or sufficient resources and, apparently, it does not include a budget to accompany teachers in the implementation of a new educational model.
I have taught English in elementary school and also economics at university, therefore, I can imagine the frustration it must be to attend to a group of children and teenagers without the prior knowledge to learn new concepts or that are "multilevel" because of the differences between students. Groups where two out of every three students are not able to construct an equation of a simple situation, as described by the IMCOor where where almost half of the students are unable to extract the main idea from a text..
What resources does a teacher have to deal with similar situations? Who does he or she rely on to develop a strategy for his or her group and to remedy the failures identified? How can he or she ensure that a student who is lagging behind does not get desperate and drop out of the system because he or she does not understand? How can he or she prevent those who are more advanced from becoming bored? What resources does he or she have to adapt his or her teaching method to the new SEP requirements? Without federal or state programs to address these kinds of challenges, teachers are left to their own devices and will do what they can do with what they can afford.
The results of the PISA 2022 test showed the great shortcomings of the Mexican education system, which is training students with skills that lag behind international talent. In this globalized world, PISA should be an alarm to invest more and better in the education sector. Where, as stated by UNESCOstates, well-trained, supported and valued teachers are essential to guarantee a quality education that offers hope for the personal and professional development of the younger generations.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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