As I did not hear back
from my international colleagues with enough information to share, I opted to
visit the UNICEF site. I took a look at the reports provided about Jamaica and
Mexico. I will share some of what I learned about childhood, education, and poverty
in Mexico.
Data presented from 2007 within
the report states that there were 38.1 million children representing 36% of
Mexico’s population (UNICEF, 2009). Additional data from 2005 states that approximately
10 million children were living in poverty. Interestingly twice as many
household in poverty are in rural areas rather than urban areas. Another
section within the report noted that there were still approximately 3.3 million
children living in homes with one dollar or less per day income.
The report explains that the
issue of children living with “deprivations of shelter, sanitation, water and
information” while improving is still a concern. Progress in regard to the “severe
deprivation in sanitation fell from 23% in 1994 to 5% in 2005, and that of
water from 18% to 2% in the same period, ENIGH).” (UNICEF, 2009) Still, nearly
half the child population still lives with at least one deprivation.
The most interesting aspect
of reading the report on Mexico, was how similar it was to reports about areas
in the USA. Take this quote for example “In matter of public resources
allocation, this research has shown evidence that education services are of
higher quality for wealthier children. Children in lower income quintiles go to
schools with the worst conditions” (UNICEF, 2009). Other similarities included
their concerns about job creation, access to health care for all income levels,
and the growing rate of obesity and connected health issues.
Drastic differences
involved a chart in which questions about the schools included “has
electricity,” “has a toilet,” “has clean floors,” and “has computers” (UNICEF, 2009). While
the majority of the schools have electricity and toilets, there appear to be
much lower amounts of clean floors and computers. A personally sad moment came
when I saw the ratio of books to children in most of the included schools was
about 2:1. How can they develop a love of learning without adequate books?
References:
UNICEF. (2009).
Country Report Mexico. Study on Poverty and Disparities in Childhood. Retrieved
from: https://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Mexico_ChildPovertyandDisparitiesReport(1).pdf
I work in a private school now. I really do see the difference in this school as compared to the Head Start that I used to work at. The children get better food and have better equipment. While we do not have to worry about toilets and such there is still a difference between schools for high income and low income students. What do you think we could do about this issue in the US?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. I noticed you thought it was interesting that there were more children living in poverty in rural Mexico than in urban areas. I noticed a similar trend between my local City and County school districts here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. More children receive free meals at school in the County than the City districts, and I thought for sure the Urban areas would have more students who would qualify for free meals. Why do you think this is?
ReplyDeleteCarmen