| It is perhaps the hardest reform of
all. Pension systems or energy shortages can be fixed by cutting entitlements or
spending more. But no amount of money can in itself make a million qualified
teachers materialize in less than a generation. That is the aim of the "Alliance
for Educational Quality" launched by Felipe Calderon, Mexico's president, this
month. To signal its importance, he gathered together much of his cabinet for
the signing ceremony on May 15th with Elba Esther Gordillo, head of the national
teachers' union. The need for good teachers is glaring. Mexico was placed dead last among members of the Organization tot Economic Co-operation and Development, a club of mainly developed countries, in reading, science and mathematics in December by the Programme for International Student Assessment. Look beyond simple place rankings and the picture gets worse. On the reading part of the test, less than 1% of Mexican 15-year olds scored as "capable of sophisticated, critical thinking" (compared with 22% in South Korea, the top scorer). Over half of Mexican 15-year olds were classed as incapable of doing basic arithmetic(算术) on the moths portion of the test. The main problem lies not with salaries for teaching, which are competitive with other jobs in Mexico, but with the quality of teachers. The government has been trying to solve the problem since 1992, when it introduced annual bonuses linked to teachers' participation in training courses and their scores on tests. This system is far from perfect. The new agreement between Mr. Calderon and Ms Gordillo has two alms. First, there is a promise to improve the fabric(建筑) of the 27,000 schools—around one in eight--that are in poor repair. Second, it seeks to break the hold of the union over teachers' careers. Under the agreement, teachers would be hired and promoted according to how they fare in a set of tests devised and marked by a new independent body. The reaction of educational experts to the deal has been muted. Many find it hard to believe that the union will concede its power over hiring and firing in a meaningful way. Yet Josefina Vasquez Mota, the minister of education, is one of Mr. Calderon's more able political operators, If she can make the agreement stick in practice, the quality of Mexican schooling should gradually improve. |