International contact- Part 2

After having a conversation with Fany, my contact in Mexico, I found out that the Secretary of Public Education (SEP) in Mexico released a new guide for the kindergarten programs on 2011, this one was an updated version of the 2004 guide. The difference between these two guides is that the 2011 has standards that focus the outcomes of the kindergarten education on basic skills of communication, recognition of the letters and numbers and their use, natural science and technology, and the 2004 version had only the foundations of the kindergarten.  Still, the main purpose of the kindergarten is not to teach children how to read and write, but some private schools have these as their primary goals, goals that influence the parents’ decision when enrolling their children into a kindergarten setting. The kindergarten standards have been aligned with the primary, junior high, and high school standards, in order to establish continuity in the education.

Even though the kindergarten education is mandated since 3 years old, not every child attends to it. Fany told me that the teachers make a census, every 2 or 4 years, in the community where they work at. This year when teachers did the census, they found out that there are some children who do not attend to school, kindergarten nor elementary, because they do not have their birth certificate, not even the one that mom was supposed to get from the doctor or midwife when the child was born, because mom lost it or parents did not have the money to pay the fee for the late birth registration; in these cases, the family needs to work with a lawyer. (Registration of the new born is for free when the child is registered before turning 6 months old. If the person is registered after 6 months old, the parents need to pay a 180 Mexican pesos fee, which is the equivalent of 14.40 American dollars.) Fany told me about a 5 year old girl, who did not have birth certificate and attended kindergarten because she, as the director, connected the family with a lawyer in order to get the birth certificate for the girl. This girl needed to be enrolled in the kindergarten, in order to be accepted in elementary school. By the end of the school year the girl did not get her birth certificate, but an elementary school in the community accepted her and they will continue working with the family and the lawyer.

Fany also told me that she thinks the system and buildings are not ready to provide a quality education, The SEP requires teachers to educate themselves, taking minimum 4 courses per school year and other required by the state. Some courses are offered in the afternoon, when the child care for the teachers’ offspring are closed, or the courses take place in schools that are far away in weekdays. Fany has taken courses on Saturdays or afternoons, but she needed to find a baby sitter for her daughter. She told me that would be better if child cares close later that 5, because this way teachers would have more opportunities to take courses without worrying about their own children.

It was pretty sad to realize that the improvement of the early education in my native country is going to remain only written on papers, because there is not enough support, not only economic, but related to their buildings too, that could offer quality education. Even though the kindergarten education since 4 years old is mandated, the reality is that there are communities that do not even have the building with materials needed to provide quality education, and this lack of materials make the parents think there is not important to enroll their children into school.  Some early childhood professionals have to make extra efforts in order to help parents understand the importance of their children’s education, which is the best way to ensure a bright future for the country.