Laura Poy Solano
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday June 3, 2022, p. 13
The covid-19 pandemic has not only impacted enrollment, but also the number of active schools. The most affected levels are preschool and upper secondary education. In the previous two school cycles (2019-2020 and 2020-2021), those most affected by the health crisis, 2,762 initial education schools closed throughout the country, of which 80 percent were private.
The report National indicators of the continuous improvement of education in Mexico 2021. Figures for the 2019-2020 school yearprepared by the National Commission for the Continuous Improvement of Education (Mejoredu), reports 104 fewer high school campuses, breaking the upward trend in the number of schools, which reached 3,831 in the 2013-2014 cycle .
It adds that in the previous school year 301 primary schools were reduced. However, this figure was lower than the average reported from 2013-2014, with 492 each year. Since there was no unexpected decrease in enrollment at this level, we can infer that the decrease in schools was not due to the effects of the health contingency.
highlights the report.
More secondary
In contrast, the number of secondary schools increased, as reported since the 2013-2014 school year. It underlines that the preliminary figures show an increase of 276 schools in the last school year. This trend coincides with the fact that between 2010 and 2020 the population group between 12 and 14 years of age, of secondary school age, grew, albeit slightly, throughout the country.
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The changes did not affect all types of service and support equally, the report notes. In preschool, where the drop in enrollment for the 2020-2021 cycle was estimated at 5.6 percent, the decrease in the number of schools was mainly due to the decrease in the number of private centers.
To a lesser extent, community preschools contributed, which decreased by 279 schools between the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years, and by 146 between 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. In upper secondary education, whose enrollment decreased by one percent, it was also the private centers that fell mainly between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 cycles.
