Education in Mexico
 |
|
|
Secretary of Education Deputy Secretary |
Aurelio Nuño Mayer |
|---|---|
| Budget |
MXN$200,930,557,665 USD$20B |
| Primary languages | Spanish as the standard. Other minority languages are available in their local communities. |
| System type | Federal |
| Current system | September 25, 1921 |
| Total | 95.1% |
| Male | 96.2% |
| Female | 94.2% |
| Total | 26.6 million |
| Primary | 18.5 million |
| Secondary | 5.8 million |
| Post secondary | 2.3 million |
| Secondary diploma | n/a |
| Post-secondary diploma | n/a |
Education in Mexico has a long history. The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico was founded by royal decree in 1551, a few months after the University of San Carlos in Lima. By comparison, Harvard College, the oldest in Anglo-America, was founded in 1636. Education in Mexico was until relatively recently largely confined to elite males and under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico.
The Mexican state has been directly involved in education since the nineteenth century, promoting secular education. Control of education was a source of ongoing conflict between the Mexican state and the Roman Catholic Church, which since the colonial era had exclusive charge of education. The mid nineteenth-century Liberal Reform separated church and state, which had a direct impact on education. President Benito Juárez sought the expansion of public schools. During the lengthy tenure of president Porfirio Díaz, the expansion of education became a priority under a cabinet-level post held by Justo Sierra; Sierra also served President Francisco I. Madero in the early years of the Mexican Revolution.
The 1917 Constitution strengthened the Mexican state's power in education, undermining the power of the Roman Catholic Church to shape the educational development of Mexicans. During presidency of Álvaro Obregón in the early 1920s, his Minister of Public Education José Vasconcelos implemented a massive expansion of access to public, secular education. This work was built on and expanded in the administration of Plutarco Elías Calles by Moisés Sáenz. In the 1930s, the Mexican government under Lázaro Cárdenas mandated socialist education in Mexico and there was considerable push back from the Roman Catholic Church as an institution. Socialist education was repealed during the 1940s, with the administration of Manuel Ávila Camacho. A number of private universities have opened since the mid twentieth century.
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