NUEVO LEON'S AMBITIOUS PLAN FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORM LIKELY TO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MONTERREY 000194

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ELAB PGOV MX
SUBJECT: NUEVO LEON'S AMBITIOUS PLAN FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORM LIKELY TO
FALL SHORT

REF: A) 2006 MEXICO 5854; B) MEXICO 1150; C) MEXICO 1133

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1. (SBU) Summary. Despite statements by President Calderon on
down that Mexico needs to fundamentally reform its educational
system, to date no reform proposals have been forthcoming at the
federal level. While Mexico has achieved nearly universal
coverage in primary school education, international test results
indicate that Mexican students still lag in critical thinking
skills. Nuevo Leon should be an ideal location for educational
reform, given its relatively high per capita income and levels
of education. Indeed, the state government has an ambitious
plan to transform its state educational system through
certifying current teachers, selecting new teachers via tests
rather than patronage, changing the teaching method, increasing
the role of parents and introducing technology to empower
students. However, based on interviews of academics, teachers,
and school and union officials, although Nuevo Leon has
incrementally advanced the ball on teacher selection, the
prospects for fundamental educational reform seem doubtful. End
Summary.

The Challenge: Mexican Schools teach Literacy, not Comprehension


2. (SBU) Mexico has substantially increased its educational
spending and has achieved nearly universal literacy and primary
school attendance. According to the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD),Mexican spending on primary
and secondary education increased 47% from 1995 to 2004, and 23%
of public spending is invested in education, the highest
percentage in the OECD. Over 90% of educational spending is for
wages (80% for teachers and 10% for other staff). Mexico only
spends 3.1% on capital spending (OECD average is 9%),and 5% on
other current expenditures, such as instructional materials
(OECD average 19.9%). (See also reftel A). According to the
Mexican national statistical service INEGI, 91.6% of Mexican
ages 15 and older are literate (up 4% since 1990),and 96% of
Mexican children age 6-12 attend school. However, children
begin to drop out in high school, as school attendance declines
to 82.5% (ages13-to 15),47.8% (ages 16-19) and 20.8% (ages
20-24). Nuevo Leon is slightly better, with a 97.2% literacy
rate, and Nuevo Leon school attendance is 96.9% (ages 6-12),
85.5% (ages 13-15),45.8% (ages 16-18) and 20.7% (ages 20-24).


3. (SBU) Mexico has embraced student testing with enthusiasm,
but Mexican students perform poorly by international standards.
The PISA test is organized by the OECD and given to 15 year olds
in all 30 OECD countries, evaluating mathematics, reading
ability and comprehension and science. Mexican students took
the PISA test in 2000, 2003 and 2006, but the results have not
shown consistent improvement. In the 2006 PISA test Mexican
students improved 19 points in mathematics compared to 2000, but
fell 12 points each in reading and science. Mexico still ranked
last in the OECD in mathematics, reading and science in 2006,
often by a significant margin. The OECD briefing notes indicate
that Mexican students can identify scientific issues, but have
difficulty analyzing data and experiments. The OECD commented
that memorization of scientific facts is insufficient in today's
job market.


4. (SBU) The 2006 PISA test results indicate that while Mexico
stagnated, Nuevo Leon improved. The 2006 results demonstrate
that Nuevo Leon students have registered significant gains since
2003, increasing their reading scores by 39 points to jump from
the eighth place Mexican state to the first, gaining 24 points
in mathematics to rise from seventh among Mexican states to
third. Meanwhile, science scores rose 15 points as Nuevo Leon
moved from seventh to fourth. However, Nuevo Leon's academic
achievements are still low. In reading, for example, 29% of
students score at levels 0 to 1 (insufficient to advance in
school and work in a knowledge society),32% were at level 2
(the minimum adequate in contemporary society),37% were in
levels 3 to 4 (good but below the highest cognitive level) and
only 1.5% at the highest level 5. Similarly, in math 45% of
Nuevo Leon students were in levels 0-1, 29% in level 2, 25% in
levels 3-4, and only .8% in level 5. The scores were much the
same in science, where 37% of students were in level 0-1, 37% in
level 2, 26% in level 3-4, and only .3% in the highest level 5.

Mexico's Traditional School System


5. (SBU) President Calderon has just called for major reforms
of the Mexican educational system, although real reform could be
blocked by the powerful Mexican SNTE teachers union (see reftel
B). The Mexican school system is still quite centralized, with
the national government providing the lion's share of the
funding and the national Secretary of Education determining
curriculum and books. The SNTE teachers union has 1.4 million
members nationally, and it is very powerful politically. The
SNTE was a pillar in the PRI alliance when PRI controlled the

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Mexican political system for decades, but the SNTE sagely
switched its support to PAN President Fox in 2000, and assisted
President Calderon in the 2006 election. In addition the SNTE
union serves as the base for the Nuevo Alliance party, which
controls critical seats in the Congress (see reftel B). Despite
increases in education funding, there is still little or no
budget for school maintenance, so according to several teachers
and academics, the parents either informally pay additional fees
or they volunteer to clean up the school. The teachers also say
that they often must pay for school essentials, such as paper or
chalk, and class sizes are large. According to the OECD, an
average Mexican secondary school classroom has 32 students (the
OECD average is 14 students). Principals have limited control
over their schools, because all of our contacts agree that it is
virtually impossible to fire a teacher for any reason, and
principals have been dismissed at the request of the union.
Several educators thought that the principals could influence
the schools by encouraging different teaching methods or the use
of technology, but only if they maintain good relations with the
union. The parents have very limited influence. Under a
previous agreement with the union, parents were prohibited from
entering the school while class was in session. Although
parents now have some access to schools, they still have little
or no influence.


6. (SBU) Mexican teachers normally are not university
graduates, instead they attend teacher institutes and are
selected for their positions by the union. Post's consular
officers interview numerous teachers, and they report that the
vast majority attend teacher institutes rather than university,
and the few university graduates typically do not teach the
subject they studied. Future teachers must take a tough test
before entering the teacher institutes, but one institute
official admitted that the applicants come from the bottom half
of all students, so the teachers do not represent the best and
the brightest. Teachers do not need to take any certification
test after they graduate, and the SNTE union, not the government
or the school principal, normally decides if and where the
students can work as a teacher. In the past, according to
anecdotal reports, teacher positions were sometimes sold or
inherited if the mother of the applicant was a teacher.
According to news reports, between 80-100% of teacher positions
are now assigned by the union nationwide. In Nuevo Leon,
according to school officials, the union had less influence, as
50% of the positions were assigned by the union and 50% by the
government. Our contacts stated that the SNTE union also
controls movement of teachers into new jobs and promotions, so
promotions can be based on friendships with union officials
rather than merit.


7. (U) Although teachers and school officials universally
lamented that teachers receive low salaries, the OECD analysis
and Post consular interviews confirm that teacher salaries are
significantly above the Mexican average. Moreover, public
school teachers teach five hours per day, and many teachers hold
second or third jobs at public or private school. Teachers also
receive rich benefits packages, including yearly bonuses and a
generous pension. Anecdotal evidence suggests that union
officials can receive much higher salaries. Although teacher
certification is not required, the federal government has a
program for 'career magisterial' (roughly master teachers)
whereby if teachers pass additional tests they receive more
money. The teachers can rise to sub-director, director and
superintendent/inspector if they continue to pass higher tests.


8. (SBU) According to news reports and our contacts, most
Mexican teachers primarily teach through memorization. The
leading newspaper El Norte stated that 66% of Mexican teachers
teach through repetition, lecture and having the students repeat
the information in chorus. According to this same report, due
to these instruction methods, only 10% of Mexican students
comprehend and can analyze what they have learned. Our contacts
agree. A school official in Monterrey commented that he thought
that 90% of the teachers were old school, using chalk and
blackboard, and that they have few books in the classroom. A
Nuevo Leon official agreed that teacher methods harken back to
the 18th century in actual classrooms. Moreover, an official at
a teaching institute confirmed that the primary teaching method
is still memorization. Several contacts noted that teaching by
memorization is the easiest method for the teacher and requires
few skills.


9. (SBU) Although the SNTE union argues that additional
teacher training is needed to improve the educational system,
current training is not properly directed to improve teachers'
skills. Econoff asked Nuevo Leon SNTE leader Juan Antonio
Rodriquez what was needed to improve the educational system, and
he immediately answered more training. However, federal

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Secretary of Education Josefina Vazquez Mota publicly decried

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that 80% of current teacher training teaches better self esteem
or emotional intelligence. Although these courses may have some
benefit, Vazquez Mota thought that since 75% of children in
primary school do not understand what they read and the
mathematics results are poor, teachers should receive
instruction on how to better teach basic subjects. Our
contacts could not confirm her estimate of teacher training
courses, but they universally agreed that there are no
guidelines on what training the teachers should receive, and no
requirement that they take training courses useful in their
teaching.


10. (SBU) Although private schools only educate 10% of
students nationwide, 24.5% of Nuevo Leon students attend private
school. In Econoff's interviews, our contacts thought that
aside from a few model private schools, most private schools
taught using the same methods as public schools. They further
claimed that there was no difference in quality, but private
schools have more social prestige and some have better
facilities. Our contacts emphasized that beyond some extremely
well funded private schools, there are small private schools
with a few poorly trained teachers in someone's house. In other
words, there is great variation in the quality of private
schools. However, an official at a teaching institute admitted
that the public school teachers all sought to educate their own
children in private schools. Private schools normally teach 6.5
to 7 hours per day, rather than the 5 hours taught in the public
schools. The international PISA test found that private school
students perform better, scoring 53 points higher than public
school kids. However, according to the OECD analysis, when the
socioeconomic background of students and schools is taken into
account, public school students actually score 21 points better.

The Plan: Nuevo Leon's Ambitious Goal to Modernize School System


11. (U) Nuevo Leon's Secretary of Education, Dr Reyes Tamez
Guerra (the former federal Secretary of Education under
President Fox) has an exciting plan to modernize Nuevo Leon's
educational system. Tamez agrees that the principal challenge
for the Mexican educational system is quality, and the system
must teach students to analyze, not just memorize. At present,
Tamez stated, 70% of students do not have the required reasoning
skills. Tamez noted Nuevo Leon's improving test scores, and he
plans to build on this success by making Nuevo Leon one of the
top three school systems in Mexico shortly and one of the ten
best school systems in the world by 2017. These educational
reforms fit perfectly with Nuevo Leon's general strategy to move
into higher value-added industries and have the Monterrey area
become a 'city of knowledge'. In addition, Nuevo Leon
officials report that the World Bank is conducting a study of
how Nuevo Leon successfully raised its academic achievement.
Moreover, the World Bank is currently negotiating a program for
Nuevo Leon to provide a combination of scholarships and grants
to provide bright students from poor backgrounds the ability to
attend college.


12. (U) Nuevo Leon's fundamental educational reform focuses on
teacher selection, a certification test for current teachers,
moving from memorization to teaching critical thinking, and
improving the use of technology, symbolized by the Enciclomedia
computer program. We understand that tehse changes can be made
without state legislative approval. Secretary Tamez told
Econoff that Nuevo Leon wants to select teachers through a test
after graduation, and the candidates who score the best can
choose their school. In addition, Nuevo Leon would require
certification tests for existing teachers, and teachers will be
given three years to pass before they are fired. Moreover,
state officials report that the federal government is changing
the method of instruction from memorization to teaching critical
thinking skills in preschool and secondary school and will
change it in primary school as well. Nuevo Leon wants to test
students' reasoning ability and publish the results to put
pressure on the school and the teachers. It also envisions
empowering parents by providing test results and increasing
their oversight role, more like the parent teacher associations
in the United States. The crowning touch will be the
Enciclomedia computer program (much like the Encarta program)
that provides 3D interactive information about music, history,
science, and language. (Note. The Enciclomedia program was
established nationwide during the Fox Administration when Tamez
was federal Secretary of Education, and has been dogged by
charges of misspent public funds. End Note.) In particular,
Secretary Tamez expects that Enciclomedia will help teachers who

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cannot speak English themselves to teach their students English.


The Reality: Incremental Change but Don't Expect a Revolution

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13. (SBU) The improved test scores indicate that Nuevo Leon is
headed in the right direction, but there is no clear explanation
why test scores are up. Several academics dismissed the
improved test scores by speculating that the students had become
experienced test takers, or the teachers were now teaching to
the test, but these theories do not explain why Nuevo Leon
improved and other parts of Mexico stagnated. The World Bank is
currently studying the issue, but it seems likely that there has
been an improvement in teaching quality and method.


14. (SBU) Although Nuevo Leon has established new procedures
for some teacher selection, it is unclear if it will certify
teachers, change teaching methods, or empower parents. The good
news is that through an agreement with SNTE, in April 842
teachers took a test to assign 325 teaching positions, and the
results are to be released publicly. However, the outlook for
other reforms is more doubtful. Econoff followed up his
original meeting with Secretary Tamez with a meeting with a
senior member of the Nuevo Leon schools. This contact reported
that Nuevo Leon hoped for, but did not have, new resources for
the reforms. In addition, he said that there would be no
penalty if current teachers flunk their certification test,
although they could receive incentives if they passed.
Moreover, when asked about an additional role for parents, he
speculated that perhaps they could provide school maintenance,
hardly giving them a say in running the school. Finally, there
has been progress on modernizing teaching methods, as our
contacts believe that teaching methods are slowly changing as
new teachers enter schools.


15. (SBU) Secretary Tamez touts the Enciclomedia program as the
magic bullet to revitalize the Mexican school system. The
Enciclomedia program constitutes a heavy investment of scarce
resources, and Enciclomedia will be placed in all fifth and
sixth grade classrooms. The Enciclomedia program is a wonder,
and the student can explore Mayan sites in 3D, hear different
instruments from an orchestra, or learn English even if the
teacher cannot speak the language. The real questions are
whether teachers use Enciclomedia and whether it is the right
priority for a strapped educational budget. Econoff spoke to
teachers, teaching instructors and university academics who
agreed that most teachers did not use Enciclomedia, because they
were uncomfortable with computers, they were not properly
trained, or Enciclomedia was not incorporated into the
curriculum. Moreover, a recent press report stated that 30% of
Nuevo Leon schools lacked access to the internet or the ability
to use the Enciclomedia program. (Note. Secretary Tamez has
claimed that 100% of schools have facilities for Enciclomedia.
End Note). In addition, our contacts all denounced the
resources spent on Enciclomedia as a gold plate solution, while
the school system neglected more fundamental needs.


16. (SBU) Finally, the Nuevo Leon reform can only succeed if
the SNTE union signs off on plans to take away their power to
select teachers, agrees to a certification test that could
result in the dismissal of many long standing teachers, and
changes teaching methods from memorization to a critical
thinking approach using technology. Our contacts agree that the
government cannot successfully oppose the SNTE teachers union.
(see reftel B). When Econoff asked why the SNTE union would
agree to these far reaching reforms, the Nuevo Leon school
officials breezily replied that Mexican society was changing and
that the SNTE union would agree, in part because the Nuevo Leon
officials have a better relationship with SNTE than the federal
Education Secretary Vazquez Mota. Although it is encouraging
that SNTE agreed to distribute some teacher places through a
test, during Econoff's meeting with the local SNTE union,
Rodriguez primarily discussed how the media unfairly attacked
SNTE, it was unfair to compare Mexico with Finland, and his
strong support for the national union (see reftels B and C).
There is no public indication that SNTE will voluntarily
relinquish its privileges.


17. (SBU) Comment. Mexican officials, from President Caldron
on down, realize the importance of improving the Mexican
educational system to improve international economic
competitiveness. In addition, the Nuevo Leon plan is very
promising by focusing on improved teacher quality, modernizing
the method of instruction, and empowering parents. However,
despite some incremental steps forward, it seems doubtful that
the state government, in the last 18 months of its term can push
through the tough reforms needed. It also seems very unlikely
that the SNTE union would agree to such fundamental changes.
Nuevo Leon is likely to take some small steps forward, but not
nearly enough to fundamentally improve the educational system.
End Comment.
WILLIAMSON