The Education System in Mexico
After nearly 3 months of taking business and marketing courses in the main University with Mexican students, I can definitely reflect on the differences of the customs, exams, and schedules between BGSU and the Universidad Veracruzana (UV).
Well, to begin, my first day of classes, I remember walking in and feeling slightly uncomfortable being the only foreigner in the majority of my classes. However, the students were all so welcoming and inquisitive that I began to feel at home soon enough. However, I must say, the first differences of how a Mexican classroom is run and how an American classroom is run were obvious: Class started 20 minutes after it was scheduled when the professor finally arrived and the students began to file on in. And then it dawned on me that even after the professor started speaking that the level of noise and chatter in the classroom never died down. It seems that the professors are just accustomed to continue speaking as well as the students- now this is not true of all profs and classes but definitely for 2 of my 3 classes. Also, it is perfectly acceptable for students to just get up and walk in and out of the class at any given time to get a drink or to make a phone call outside. Many spend half of the classtime outside of it. It was a bit distracting at first, but I got used to it.
Now this is not to say that we don’t learn; we just learn in a more conversational and informal way. I like it because we students have the opportunity to interact more with the professor and to be more relaxed. The point of the class is to learn the material, not just to take a test. That’s what I love.
Other differences are that there is far less homework and far more emphasis on the exams which are usually two during the semester and then the one big final that is worth 40% of the grade. There are participation grades but I have not yet figured out how they are factored into the final grade. The grading system is from 1-10…I get the impression that the majority of students get 8’s with little to no effort.
I found that my first exams were a bit rough. They were open-answer essay questions and the majority of content in my Marketing and business courses is composed of lists of factors and characteristics of different business strategies….so I felt like I was learning lots and lots of lists within lists of concepts and I needed to be prepared to just regurgitate it all. This has its bonuses and negatives…I feel that I learn far more of the material and the details with these kinds of tests than I would normally with a multiple -choice test (which are also used here). However, I don’t have to apply the concepts to the real world… maybe that is more for upper level classes- not sure. The negative is that I often feel like I am just memorizing material from my notes and regurgitating…but hey I save money on not buying text books (they’re not used except for the science and math majors).
I have noticed that there is a concept acknowledged and known by Mexicans called “la cultura de menos esfuerzos” (culture of less effort). What that means is that there seems to be an overall cultural attitude that people do not need to work that hard to reach their goals. I talked with some of my peers and teachers about it, and it is something that they admit is real and common in Latin America. For example, there is a stronger correlation of students cheating through various means and of the teachers not doing anything about it, the buying off of grades, the frequency of classes being cancelled for festivals 2 hours away from the city and spontanous concerts in front of the school, etc. I even have one professor who is a very good prof when she comes, but rarely comes to class herself. We have had 5 class sessions in 2 months. She’s the only one who is that bad with assistance- my other 2 classes are fortunately not like that. The problem with the education system is that the teachers can’t really be fired very easily…and there are no negative consequences for not showing up to class. Obviously this attitude of less effort needed carries over into the kids and the culture.
I think a part of the problem is that most people do not have the hope of ever working for a big multinational corporation, as one of my professors pointed out in class. He said: “99% of you in this room will go on to work for small or medium-sized companies, often run by family members. But 1% of you (playfully indicating me, the only foreigner and American in the room) would actually need and care to learn this material about the mega-businesses well.” (Except this was all in Spanish).
It’s interesting how the perspective of education and its importance is different here. I think that people still value education strongly here, but they see it only as a means to an end..and it is not that impressive of an end so they just get through it by barely scraping by. However, in the U.S. the education system works hard to protect against that by literally failing students who do not pass. We also have standardized testing that I previously condemned but now value after seeing how the standards can vary too greatly without some sort of system of checks and balances. To conclude, I enjoy my materials and the variety of my classes here in Mexico; however, I think that I will have a harder time adjusting back into the more difficult school system of BGSU in the fall.