According to CNN Mexico, the proposal came from the Cámara de Diputados (lower house), where it was approved last December. Now, after the approval of the Senate, president Felipe Calderón has to sign it to make it law, reforming in the process, the articles 3rd and 31st of the Mexican Constitution.
The law will guarantee access to high school for every Mexican between 15 and 18 years old. Last time Mexico raised the number of mandatory years of school, was in 1993 when government made junior high mandatory. Meaning that in the last 18 years, Mexico has doubled the mandatory years of education from 6 to 12.
With this reform, Mexico equates itself to developed countries like Belgium, Germany, Italy and Netherlands, that have established 12 years of mandatory education. In United States the number is 11 years.
There seems to be a consensus in the public opinion, about the need of more education as the best way to fight poverty and transform the country into a developed economy, but few real efforts were made to improve the Mexican educational system.
With this reform, Mexico’s government is making the commitment to invest $54 billion pesos in ten years, in order to include nearly 3 million of young Mexicans that, as of today, have no access to high school.
