S.D. Colleges to Host Mexican Professors : Training: Pact will allow hundreds of educators to study advanced technologies at community colleges.

The first of several hundred Mexican professors will begin studying computer and other technologies at the San Diego Community Colleges as early as February under an agreement signed Thursday.

The idea was first broached in late September by community college district Chancellor Augustine Gallego to Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari during a San Diego visit.

The binational training pact will bring professors from many of Mexico’s 300 technical education institutes to San Diego for as long as a semester to study with district instructors. Participants may also serve an industry internship with area employers.

The goal is to boost Mexico’s ability to keep pace with advanced technologies that the country--and its industries--will need to compete economically around the world, especially if free-trade pacts with Canada and the United States come to fruition.

Although the agreement calls for the first 20 Mexican professors to arrive next July, Gallego learned from his Mexican counterparts visiting San Diego on Thursday that Mexico would like several professors to come as early as February to study tourism and automotive technology.

Mexican educators, led by Estelio Baltazar Cadena, director general of vocational education for the ministry of education, were particularly impressed with courses and equipment at San Diego City College that deal with auto pollution control, Gallego said.

In addition, Mexico wants up to 12 San Diego faculty members from the community college district to to to Mexico for teaching stints at the country’s technical institutes.

“That would not only be a good educational exchange but culturally positive as well for some of our faculty to expand their perspective,” Gallego said.

The initial cost of $64,950 will be paid by the Mexican government, which is also building dormitories at a technical institute site in Tijuana, where the professors studying in San Diego will be able to stay. Additional money to expand the program is being sought from the Agency for International Development and the World Bank.