According to the 2008 Evaluation Report on Social Development Policy in Mexico, estimations by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), based on the 1992 – 2006 National Household Income and Expense Survey (ENIGH), report progress in the coverage of basic services in educational matters.

For the 20 percent poorest population during the 1992 – 2006 period, the percentage of girls and boys between the age of 8 and 12 who did not attend school went from 8.9 to 3.5 percent; the percentage of girls and boys between the age of 13 and 15 who worked and did not attend school dropped from 15.6 to 9.8 percent; and the percentage of people 15 years and older with incomplete primary education went from 64.8 to 44.8 percent. The percentage of heads of household with basic education or higher went from 29.9 percent in 1992 to 47.0 percent in 2006.

In 2006, primary and secondary school coverage was able to cover over 90 percent of the population in basic education school-age. However, middle-high and high education coverage is still under 60 percent.

The results of the broadening of educational coverage have come hand in hand with the growth of educational expenditure. The participation of educational expenditure in the total federal expenditure went from 15.6 percent in 1990 to 22.5 percent in 2008. Regarding employment, according to data by the National Occupation and Employment Survey (Encuesta Nacional de Ocupación y Empleo, ENOE), the percentage of population occupied in educational activities for the year 2008 was around 4 percent, in average.

Regarding education, the challenges in matters of quality are still significant. Compared to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCDE) non-member countries participating in the PISA test, in 2006 Mexico ranked 18 out of 26 countries in Mathematics tests. Progress has been slow since 2000, for Mexico is 23 points below the average of this group of countries.

Likewise, ENLACE tests for primary, secondary and recently for middle-high education, confirm that students’ educational progress is not the optimum to face the challenges in productivity, competitiveness and human development required by our country.

Therefore, the CONEVAL issued the following general recommendations in the 2008 Evaluation Report on Social Development Policy in Mexico, targeted especially to the education area:

External evaluation

During 2008, external Consistency and Results evaluations were made on the programs by the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP), which reported the following finds:

As of their design, the programs have good coordination with other federal programs and with educational authorities. Likewise, they contribute to the solution of the detected problematic. However, they require sufficient means of verification and monitoring of their performance indicators, they have not been able to fully identify their potential and target population, and count with indicators that do not comply with the necessary requirements: being clear, relevant, cheap, adequate and monitorable.

Regarding their strategic planning, the programs count with the means to have reliable and accurate information allowing them to monitor their performance. The challenge they face is to count with updated short, medium and long-term strategic plans, as well as with a better determination of the potential population they are focused on.

The programs have improved their operation and procedures, as well as the mechanisms for transparency, diffusion and social comptrollership. However, there are no indicators to measure the cost-benefit.

The 2008 Evaluation Report on Social Development Policy in Mexico full version and summary, and the 2007-2008 Consistency and Results federal program evaluation results are available at: www.coneval.gob.mx