In the confused years preceding the Díaz regime educational advances were often lost in the background. Under the leadership of Joaquín Barranda and Justo Sierra, the control of primary education was centralized in 1891, the first Organic Law for compulsory free education was promulgated in 1893, and an Office of the Director General of Primary Instruction was created in 1896. Education in the Federal District made some notable advances and served as a pattern for the States. As a special feature of the first centennial of Mexican independence in September 1910, a National Congress of Primary Instruction was called. The data collected for that meeting were for urban primary schools only, since there was no system of rural education then, but the figures indicate that a start had been made toward a national system. The boys in school outnumbered the girls 4 to 1, and only about a fifth of the school-age population was receiving any education. The following table extracted from the report of the Dirección General de Instrucción Primaria compares the extent of primary education in the Republic as a whole with that in the Federal District.

Table C.-Mexican primary education in 1910

Of the 671 schools in the Federal District, 436 were public, 235 private, and their cost in 1910 was 31⁄2 million pesos. A plan to increase Federal support of education was announced just before Díaz left the Presidency, but was never carried out. He had allowed 300,000 pesos for the project, which was to establish elementary schools throughout the Republic to teach the indigenous races Spanish and arithmetic.

The University, having remained conservative and traditional and opposed to change, was closed and reopened several times between the years 1833 and 1865, when Maximilian closed it finally. As the demand for professional training grew, schools of medicine, dentistry, geology, and others were established independently and later integrated with the University when it was re-established in 1910 as the National University of Mexico and again reorganized in 1921. The National Library, Astronomical Observatory, Central Meteorological Observatory, Military

School, and Naval School were also founded during the period of independence preceding the Revolution.

Early in the course of independence a new type of school, the instituto, developed in the States as an outgrowth of the Jesuit schools. When the Jesuits were exiled in 1767 by decree of Charles III, their extensive libraries and schools and other properties in the leading cities of the country were confiscated. The theological work was placed under Church control and the other departments were continued or allowed to lapse, depending on the ability of the local government officials to keep them going. These schools had been popular in Mexico and the people wanted them continued. With independence and the influence of French philosophical ideas they were revived or reformed and eventually organized somewhat according to the plan of the National Preparatory School in the capital. Even before independence the younger generation in Mexico had been looking to France rather than Spain for inspiration, and French intellectual standards exerted a powerful influence. The French system of education took root more firmly during the reign of Maximilian and Carlota and persisted up to the Revolution and beyond.

By 1901 national educational affairs were under the control of the Secretaría de Justicia e Instrucción Pública. In 1901 a separate branch was created, the Subsecretaría de Instrucción Pública y Bellas Artes, which in 1905 was given full cabinet status with Justo Sierra as Secretary. After the adoption of the Constitution of 1917 this department of Government was again transformed and in 1921 it became the Secretaría de Educacion Pública with José Vasconcelos as Secretary of Public Education. The building occupied by the Secretaría recognizes the ideology of the Revolution through a series of frescoes by Diego Rivera, begun in 1922 and consisting of 124 panels in all, depicting in bold and colorful outline Mexico's long road to freedom.

Having convinced the people that "to educate is to redeem" (educar es redimir), Vasconcelos launched an ambitious program which was further elaborated by Manuel Gamio, Moisés Sáenz, Rafael Ramírez, and other farsighted associates and successors. A great awakening in education swept the country. A nation was being formed, and in the work of formation the line between society and school was no longer sharply drawn. Rural education, cultural missions, increased budget, greater Federal participation, public secondary schools, reconstruction of the university, scientific research, technical training, agricultural and vocational schools, literacy, fundamental education, new normal schools, social action, liberty and books-these and many other ideas fell into a design of concentrated effort toward building a brighter future for Mexico.

The Constitution, Article 3, gives an explicit and idealistic prescription for the system of national education. The education given by the Federation. States, and Municipalities shall develop harmoniously all the faculties

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of the human being and encourage in him at the same time a love of country and a consciousness of international solidarity. Being free of any religious doctrine and based on the results of scientific progress, education is to fight against ignorance and its consequences, slavery, fanaticism, and prejudice. It is to be democratic in the sense that democracy is a way of life rooted in constant economic, social, and cultural improvement of the people. It is to be national, paying attention to the nation's problems, the development of its resources, the defense of its political and economic independence, and the growth of an integrated national life. Personal dignity, family integrity, the social good, fraternity, and complete equality before the law are to be upheld.

For a third of a century now educators and citizens all over the nation have been applying their energies with fervor and imagination to a task that appears ever more challenging as the goal comes nearer. The obstacles, seeming at times insuperable, still loom large, but the movement has kept to its course and can be credited with tangible achievements. Literacy, which was no more than 30 percent in 1910, has been increased to better than 50 percent, and the comprehensive ideological changes of the social revolution have been brought about as much by education as by political and economic evolution. In contrast to pre-Revolutionary philosophy, education is definitely concerned with the welfare of the indigenous population and the development of rural areas, with practical and functional content, and with Mexican traits and values rather than European cultural models. Mexico's struggle for democracy is symbolized by the public school. The share of the national budget assigned to education increased from 81⁄2 million pesos in 1910 to 712 million in 1955 and has more than doubled since 1950. The 1955 budget for education, exceeded only by that for the Secretariat of Communications and Public Works and the public debt, represents 12.5 percent of the total. It provides for the establishment of numerous new schools, the training of a large contingent of teachers, and a 27 percent increase in teachers' salaries. These facts alone attest the Government's determination to continue on an undiminished scale the work of popular enlightenment.

PART II-Education

Organization and Administration

THE BASIC STRUCTURE of education in Mexico, after preschool, is primaria 6 years, secundaria 3 years, preparatoria 2 years, and universitaria 3 to 7 years. But there are many other educational paths, as set forth in the chart on page 28. After primaria, students may enter (instead of secundaria) the 5-year preparatoria, the 6-year normal, or a school of commerce, music, plastic arts, or prevocational studies. After secundaria, they may enter (instead of preparatoria) the professional cycle of the normal, a school of nursing, a vocational or military school, or a higher school of agriculture. The vocational schools, at the preparatoria level, normally lead into technical fields of specialization such as those offered in the National Polytechnic Institute.

Education is intended for all the people and is secular, free, and compulsory between the ages of 6 and 14, inclusive. Schools are Municipal, State, or Federal. States have the power to legislate in educational matters, within the framework of Federal regulations, and may administer their own schools unless they concede administrative control to the Federal Government. Technical direction, that is everything pertaining to objectives, programs of study, methods of instruction, examinations. and the like, is assumed entirely by the Federal Government. The Government has complete control, administrative and technical, over education in the Federal District and Territories and in the schools which it establishes and maintains in the States. It also exercises supervisory control over all private schools which offer elementary, secondary, or normal school training or education of whatever type or grade for workers. Private institutions wishing to offer education under any of these categories must have authorization of the Federal Government and their teaching must correspond in every way to the plans, programs, and methods of the official schools. The Government has the power to revoke such authorization at any time, and against such revocation there is no recourse.

Education in each State, except for Federal schools, is the responsibility of the Director General of Schools appointed by the Governor. The Director General in turn appoints a Director of Inspection and a Director

of Finance, who are professionally trained. Municipalities, the units of local government, establish and maintain schools, and the State authorities appoint and supervise the teachers. Most of the States have no special school tax, so the State Congress determines the amount of the State income to be used for education. This amount for the past several years has varied from 10 or 12 percent in a few States up to 43 or 44 percent in others. To alleviate deficiencies in the local and State systems, the Federal Government, since 1922, has been building schools throughout the country, and this has led to a dual system of education in the States. The Federal Government maintains an office in the capital of each State with a Director of Federal Education who, as representative of the Secretariat of Public Education, assumes control of all Federal schools within the State and has the duty also of coordinating Federal action