BajaNews - 4-3-2006 at 08:54 AM
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/17614.html
BY NURIT MART?NEZ
April 03, 2006
Nationwide, nearly 5.5 million children between the ages of 3 and 17 don?t go to school, according to a recent study by the National Institute for the
Evaluation of Education (INEE).
It is the first time an institution linked to the Public Education Secretariat has carried out such a study. The final number was obtained by checking
the nation?s total population of children against the number of children enrolled in elementary, middle and high schools.
This means that 17 out of every 100 children don?t go to class, the study concluded. The most common reasons for dropping out are: Needing to find
work, being forced to migrate or failing to receive adequate attention from teachers.
The study, titled "Access and Trajectory in the Education System," was carried out in 2004. It also indicates that 1.7 million children are far behind
in their studies and at risk of dropping out.
According to the information gathered, the Mexican education system has little problem retaining children between the ages of 5 and 11. At the age of
12, however, children begin to drop out in fairly large numbers.
The states with the most dropouts are Chihuahua, Michoac?n, Baja California and Guanajuato. The percentage of dropouts is as high as 22 percent in
some cases. Mexico City, Baja California Sur and Tabasco have the best student retention rates, according to the study.