Modernización del federalismo educativo en Zacatecas

Abstract

The signature of the National Agreement for the Modernization of Basic education and Teacher’s colleges Education in 1992 pretended to solve the decentralization process by transferring the educative attributions, and the human, material and financial resources to the federative states, in a manner that they could handle the services of basic education and teachers’ formation themselves. Then, in 1993, the General Law of Education, and in 1994 the Interior Rules of the Public Education Secretary, sanctioned the Agreement.

The educative federalization process in Zacatecas, as in the rest of the country, implied the Federal financial abandonment to the states, which had disastrous results: the inequality in the transfer of the scarce economic resources destined for educative purposes produced a national budget deficit in the higher education system. The private funding for schools is an understandable consequence of the tensions between the federal and the state educative systems.

On the other hand, the possibility that education could actually be a factor of social mobility, and of economical and social development, is at risk, as the amount of fulfilled years of basic education is below twelve years, and as the education backwardness and the analphabetism still persist.

There are plenty challenges for the educative system in Zacatecas; in particular those of basic education are: i) all pre-school teachers should be professionals, ii) halt the education backwardness and increase the level of middle-school graduates, iii) increase the schooling level, iv) augment the implementation of the Quality Schools program in different school levels, v) promote teacher’s programs updates towards a school-centered teaching practice, vi) stimulate the formation of professionals in school management and administration, vii) encourage a new culture of evaluation, and viii) reduce the scholar bureaucracy.