Getting to Know Your International Contacts-Part 2

In my first blog about international contacts I introduced two contacts from Bolivia.  For this assignment I was unable to contact one of them and the other one referred me to someone else who didn't respond back. But in talking with the Spanish teacher at my school about the assignment he got me in contact with his cousin in Mexico, Gabriella Garcia.  She was able to tell me a little about what goes on in Mexican classrooms.  She teaches first grade and has 45 children in each class.  She teaches  half day program.  A morning session from 8-12 and an evening from 3-7.  She is allowed to send a child for a branch off of a tree and spank the children.  The Mexican education system is divided into four levels: preschool (K1-K3), compulsory basic education (1-9), upper secondary education (10-12), and higher education.  The government is officially responsible for providing compulsory basic education, although it is also involved in the other three levels.  Public schools serve 87% of all students in the country.  A key issue in The Mexican education has to do with insufficient enrollment and high dropout rates beyond the primary levels, insufficient supply of upper secondary schools, and low student achievement levels.  This was the only information should provided  but I look forward to keeping in contact with her.  Hopefully this contact will stay a contact by it being the cousin of one of my coworkers.