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Sinaloa: School cooperatives earned 83,973 pesos; school savings accounts amounted to 190,140 pesos. Padres de Familia contributed 315,513 pesos to the schools, and social activities sponsored by the teachers and pupils netted 139,644 pesos. 94 schools were repaired, 22 new ones completed, 27 still under construction. The total State expenditure on education was 22,428,966 pesos.

Zacatecas: Of the 16,284 adults enrolled in 332 centers, 12,690 became literate. Of the 29,932 primary pupils, 17,848 were promoted to the next higher grade and 1,721 completed their primary education.

Secondary and Preparatory Education

PREPARATORIA

Secondary education in Mexico comprises those studies between primaria and universitaria or profesional técnica. (See chart, p. 28) It consists of a single 5-year course, the preparatoria, or of a 3-year basic program called the secundaria which may be followed by any one of several types of course.

The traditional academic program is given in the 5-year preparatoria or in the 2-year preparatoria which follows secundaria. These plans of study are shown in Table 2, pp. 98 and 99. The certificate which the student receives upon completion of either program is the Bachiller de Ciencias or the Bachiller de Humanidades, depending upon the requirements of the professional school which he plans to enter. The National Preparatory School, established in 1867, is administered by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and still serves as the model for other preparatorias in the Federal District and States. The National Preparatory School has actually become four schools, each with its own director working under the jurisdiction of the Director General of Preparatory Instruction in the University. School No. 1 and School No. 4, founded in 1953, both offer the 2-year plan of studies and require for admission the certificate of graduation from the secundaria. School No. 2 offers the 5-year plan of studies, requiring for admission the certificate of completion of the primaria. No. 3, a night school founded in 1923, offers all the plans of study and, in addition, some special work in stenography, bookeeping, and office organization.

Most of the institutos in the States have programs similar to those of the National Preparatory School and several of the State universities and institutions of higher education in and outside the capital maintain preparatory schools which follow the same plan of studies. By meeting the standards and complying with the regulations set by the National University these institutions may be "incorporated" with the National

Table H.-Schools in the Federal District incorporated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico

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Instituto "Patria" (Sección de Bachilleratos).... Colonia Morales-Polanco

Colegio "La Florida”....

Instituto Femenino "Mexicano”.
Colegio "Cristóbal Colón”.

Colegio "Groso"

Instituto Tecnológico de México”.

Colegio "Hispano-Americano".
Instituto "Juventud"..
Colegio "Israelita de México".

Centro Universitario "México".

Universidad "Motolinía”.

Instituto Mexicano "Universitario”.

Escuela de Enfermeras de la Cruz Roja.

Escuela "Preparatoria del Magisterio”.

Instituto "Miguel Ángel”.

Colonia Lindavista

Colonia Nápoles

Colonia San José Insurgentes

Colonia San Rafael

Colonia San Rafael

Colonia San Rafael

Colonia Santa María la Ribera
Santa María la Ribera, No. 72
Colonia del Valle

Colonia del Valle

Colonia del Valle

Durango, No. 355

Durango y Monterrey

Fresno, No. 15

Gabriel Mancera, No. 1232

Escuela de Enfermeras del Instituto Mexicano Hospital de la Raza

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University. Tables H and I give the name and location of the schools both in the Federal District and outside which in 1954 maintained an incorporated status.

Table I.-Schools outside the Federal District incorporated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico

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Escuela de Enfermería y Obstetricia de la Clínica y Monterrey, Nuevo León

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The elementary education provided in the primaria in Mexico has been terminal for most students and the preparatoria has always stressed a theoretical classical type of education given in the university atmosphere and under the tutelege of the university faculties. It has been customary for parents who could afford it to send their children to private schools, and the children from poorer families had to leave school to work, so there was never much demand for public secondary schools. As a part of the educational awakening of the post-Revolutionary period, however, a great effort has been made to build a new type of secondary school, one that would extend upward the work of the primaria and more nearly meet the needs of all the students, articulating at the same time with other types of preparation following the basic 3-year cycle. In the early twenties Mexico sent a team of educators to Columbia University to study secondary education and soon afterward began establishing public secondary schools. By 1926 there were four and they were crowded. John Dewey. who visited and lectured in Mexico that year, spoke approvingly of their activity method and observed that the educational pattern is sure to change if pupils do not have to deal with materials so isolated from their experience that memory is their sole reliance.

The program of studies for the secundaria is given in Table 1, p. 97. Students under 15 years of age may enter the day schools and those over 15 who are working in factories, stores, and offices may take the night classes. The evening students omit the directed study, manual arts shopwork, and physical education, since their employment substitutes for such activities. There are two types of schedule in the day schools. One is continuous from 8 to 3:30 with 50 minutes for lunch at school; the other has two sessions, 8 to 1 and 3:30 to 5:30. The continuous schedule was adopted after business and government offices abandoned the custom of taking a daily siesta, or noon rest. As in the case of the primary schools, boys and girls attend separate schools, although the semi-urban schools in the States are sometimes mixtas. In the girls' schools the students frequently adopt uniforms, each class wearing a different color, such as pink for the first year, blue for the second, and maroon for the third. Each school has an association of Padres de Familia and a Sociedad de Alumnos, students' association, which sponsor exhibitions, lectures, and concerts, and assist with school activities. Committees are formed to promote punctuality, neatness, and civic responsibilities. As in the primaria, the classes are motivated by patriotic themes, contests, festivals, assemblies, school museums, audiovisual materials, music, drawing, dancing, dramatizations, and occasional excursions and parades. The directed study periods are intended to reduce the amount of home study and to encourage collateral reading and give practice in using reference books, maps, charts, graphs, and the like. Examinations are scheduled three times a year before the vacation periods. When the student finishes secundaria he may take the 2-year preparatoria if he wishes to enter the university, or the 3-year professional cycle of the normal if he wishes to be a teacher, or a vocational school for various kinds of technical courses. The military school, schools of fine arts, commercial studies, agriculture, and nursing are other possibilities. If he does not continue school, it is expected that the basic secondary education will equip him better than the primaria had done for becoming a useful worker and a responsible citizen.

The secundarias, which are under the direction of SEP, are trying to build up full-time teaching staffs. Formerly it was the custom for teachers to distribute their time among several schools, but with the addition of school lunches, vocational counseling, medical and dental services, directed study, school clubs, athletic contests, etc., it has been necessary to keep at least part of the teachers in the school throughout the day. These teachers are called maestros de planta. Teachers are assigned classes only in their field of specialization.

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SPECIAL SCHOOLS

For students with a particular vocational interest who need to start earning a living sooner than would be probable in the secundaria program there are schools aimed more directly at prevocational training; others serve the special needs of the delinquent, physically handicapped, or mentally retarded. Most of these schools include some of the academic subjects of the secundaria program of studies, such as language and arithmetic. Students who wish to study music or plastic arts may enter the national schools in these fields, which are under the administration of the National University, or one of the schools of fine arts or applied arts and crafts under the direction of SEP. There are schools of corte y confección to teach dress designing, pattern making, sewing, and tailoring. Commercial schools offer a 3-year course in typing, shorthand, bookkeeping, office practice, and practical business subjects. Other establishments train beauty operators and hotel service personnel.

STATISTICAL DATA

The new type of secondary school, which is the one given greatest support by the Government, has been handicapped by the lack of funds and trained teachers and by academic sentiment unfavorable to drastic changes in the university preparatory method of instruction. With large classes and many part-time teachers, the theory of the new program sometimes fails to materialize in actual practice. Nearly half the students who enroll in the secundaria drop out of school or fail the year's work, as shown in the data concerning the number of students enrolled and promoted in each of the classes of the 1950 school year. (Table J.)

The number of schools has increased steadily. Starting with 4 in 1926, the number grew to 199 in 1940, 241 in 1945, 455 in 1952, and 524 in 1955. The distribution according to the type of school may be noted in the tabulation for the years 1945 and 1952. (Table K.)

A report from the School Statistics Department of SEP shows that in 1950 there were in the Republic 275,196 persons under 25 years of age who had completed between 7 and 9 years of schooling and 154,596 who had finished one of the grades between the 10th and 12th. An additional 88,000 joined these ranks from the secondary and preparatory schools that year when 73,361 students were promoted in the lower secondary institutions and 14,810 were promoted or graduated at the upper secondary level. Nearly half of the students in the first group were taking commercial, prevocational, or special studies, while about a fourth of those in the higher group were in a vocational school. Boys outnumbered girls 2 to 1 in the secundaria and 5 to 1 in the preparatoria. In 1955, there was a total enrollment in all post-primaria schools, except professional,

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