7th meeting of the Network on Early Childhood Education and Care: FINANCING ECEC SERVICES June 2010 Compulsory Preschool in Mexico “Process and Challenges”

Initial Education Birth to 3 years 11 months old Care and Educational focus Diferent curriculums Conafe´s impact evaluation: -Improvement of parents and children competencies Preschool 3 to 5 years 11 months old Since 2002 obligatory Educational focus only 15 hours per week No impact evaluation Ministry of Welfare NGOS Ministry of Health Ministry of Education Mexican Early Childhood Education

C O M P U L S O R Y Reasons to make preschool compulsory Public Policy To improve the quality of the educational process and its achievements To attain 12 years of schooling International Research Children 3-6 years of age who attend Preschool Have time during preschool to develop their capacities and skills Have easier transitions and a better academic performance in elementary school Increase their self-control, self-esteem, and communication, social, and mathematical skills

Costs of making preschool compulsory In 2009 the Goverment invested in preeschool $1,030 Thousand US Cost per Child/ 4,594,382 $4,7 Billions US Cost per Year Infrastucture Regularization Training Operation Costs Materials Salaries

Implementation Process 2002 Reforms of the Mexican Constitution (3rd and 31st Articles) Obligatory Preschool “Preschool education will become obligatory in the following stages: the 3rd year of preschool in the academic cycle; the 2nd year of preschool in the academic cycle; the 1st year of preschool in the academic year” Regulation of public and private establishments Setting standards and qualifications for educative agents State-level, regional, municipal, and service unit meetings to introduce the new program Reform Implementation Process

Obstacles Early childhood development depends not on obligations, but on curricular development and suitable conditions Policy Debate Preparing educators that work with different methods and programs Provide services to diverse populations Lack of preschool teachers Training Overcrowding of preschool classrooms for lack of space Infrastructure Lack of capital to accomplish the obligatory first year due to the finnancial crisis Resource distribution criteria Resources

Successes Since the academic school year, preschool registration has grown by more than 1.1 million children.

Challenges First year3 years old39.5 % Second year4 years old98.9% Third year5 years old98.4% Preschool Enrollment ( ) To increase the 3 year old population enrollment, which represent almost the 21% of children not enrolled

Challenges Enrollment would rise to 726 thousand students 42 thousand new teachers ( 1:18) 38 thousand classrooms 1. Investment to Balance between parents´ working hours and preeschool Increase preeschool hours in order to support working parents