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THE MEXICAN EDUCATION SYSTEM AND THE LANCASTER SCHOOL

If a pupil wants the right of access to Mexican further education, he or she must normally attend a school affiliated to the national education system, which is organised as follows:

Preschool 3 – 6 years

Primary 6 - 12 years

Secondary 12 - 15 years

Preparatory 15 - 18 years

Preschool, Primary and Secondary are controlled by the Ministry of Education (SEP) and Preparatory by the National University of Mexico (UNAM). This control, in all four education stages, is exercised by an inspectorate, which checks that the academic programmes laid down nationally are in fact being followed. Internally the school is organised into PreSchool, Primary and Upper, with the first year of Primary corresponding to Year 2 and the first year of Upper corresponding to Year 7.

The Lancaster School is established by an inter-governmental agreement as a bicultural school, giving it scope to teach British and International programmes to IGCSE and IB Diploma as a complement to that required by SEP and UNAM. The Mexican national programmes are, for the most part, covered automatically in preparing pupils for IGCSE and IB, although there is an emphasis on the Spanish language, and on Social Science which one would not encounter in Britain. The integration of programmes has intensified over the last couple of years with the introduction of the International Baccalaureate and this process has bought local and overseas staff closer together as a result. We try to keep abreast of current thinking and developments in Britain and elsewhere although we are not bound by legislation such as that introduced to implement the National Curriculum.

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