The National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval) highlighted that among the benefits granted by the implementation of the Full-Time Schools Program (PETC) is a report on educational lag and school dropout rates, in addition to that improved the performance in the subject of mathematics of the beneficiary students of primary and secondary.
When participating in the Work Table to review the Full-Time Schools Program of the Chamber of Deputies, various Coneval officials announced the results of the evaluations carried out on this educational program recently eliminated by the SEP.
Janet Zamudio Chávez, Executive Director of Evidence Analysis, indicated that after analyzing the implementation of this educational program, Coneval identified benefits ranging from a reduction in the educational gaps between the most advanced students and those who do not, as well as a lower in the repetition of grades, in primary and secondary school children. Especially, she said, in minors belonging to marginalized communities.
“These effects are larger when we only use data for localities that have high marginalization. What would be happening is that the program has greater effects for those children who are in worse socioeconomic conditions. In addition to the fact that the children who have worse results in the Planea tests are advancing a little more with respect to other referents, ”she stressed.
Likewise, it indicated that due to the fact that the program granted extended days and the food service, it was possible to identify a lower dropout rate in secondary school beneficiary students.
“It makes a lot of sense because when you have an extended day in secondary school, children already have an opportunity cost of being in school or dedicating themselves to activities that support the home or working; if you only extend the day, what happens is that eventually there is an abandonment, but if you extend the day and also provide them with food service, the abandonment is reduced”, explained Zamudio Chávez.
Meanwhile, he recalled that the Planea 2015 test showed that the complicated time schools were the ones with the best results in Language and Communication, and for 2017, the same evaluation identified that one of every two secondary schools incorporated into this educational model had better results. in the same category, in addition to mathematics.
For her part, Zahí Martínez Treviño, executive director of federalized spending analysis, highlighted the problems arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, programs such as the ETCs, could be of great help to basic level students.
This, he said, thanks to the fact that the food service would help households where income was temporarily or permanently interrupted, as well as the reduction of gaps for access to healthy food.
Therefore, he recommended that the La Escuela es Nuestra Program maintain not only the improvement of the infrastructure of the schools but also the benefits of full-time schools.
They ask to suspend amparos vs LEEN
Arguing that the recent modifications to the Operating Rules of the La Escuela es Nuestra (LEEN) program include extended hours and meals, the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) requested the dismissal of the amparo lawsuit filed against the new school program.
The educational institution explained that after the Second District Court for Administrative Matters denied the provisional suspension requested by the president and general secretary of the PRD, the SEP requested, through its Legal Affairs Unit, the dismissal of the amparo lawsuit filed. by the Aztec sun against the La Escuela es Nuestra (LEEN) program, arguing that it is left without material, since the recent modifications to the Rules of Operation include the benefits of extended hours and food service.
He added that after the publication of Agreement 02/05/22, in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) on May 8, 2022, in which the LEEN Operating Rules are issued, for the fiscal year of this year, the PRD, in its capacity as complainant, requested that said regulations be rendered null and void and that they be provisionally suspended.
However, the Second District Court for Administrative Matters in Mexico City denied the provisional suspension, for this reason, the LEEN program continues to operate normally.
Likewise, the SEP reiterated that, by decision of the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, not only are the aforementioned benefits maintained, but they will be extended to a greater number of schools as of 2023, so that LEEN goes from serving 27,000 to 113,000 schools, and increase the number of beneficiaries from 3.6 million students to almost 9 million.