Failing grades for Mexico’s education system

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

‘Manual laborers of the future.’ That was the stinging headline on a story in the print edition of today’s El Financiero newspaper about the dismal performance of Mexican students in the latest education rankings put out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

According to analysis by El Financiero and other major dailies, Mexican 15-year-olds ranked dead last in their performance among the 30 member nations of the OECD and 49th overall out of the 57 countries that participated in the evaluation of math, science and reading abilities.

Just over half of Mexican students — 51% — exhibited extremely low proficiency in these critical areas. Only 3% scored in the top levels of science, compared with an average of 9% among OECD member countries.

The findings bode ill for Mexico, which can no longer compete with low-wage countries for factory jobs. The nation needs to harness its brainpower to move up the economic ladder. But the education system clearly is failing to prepare Mexico’s youth to compete in a global economy. For that, give Mexican educators a big, fat F.

Posted by Marla Dickerson in Mexico City