In a globalized world, public policies are subject to the recommendations of international organizations that regulate and determine educational policies according to their own needs and interests. In this sense, educational skills, arising from the business world, have become the focus of curriculum design and teacher professionalism and managerial schools Basic and Secondary Education in Mexico. Specifically, the National Association of Professional Technical Education (CONALEP), has become a pillar that provides students of Media Education competent technical professional for requirements that are demanded today. Since its birth in 1978 was oriented to the formation of technical professionals, graduates of Basic Education, with the main objective job training, intersectoral linkages, community support and technological advice and assistance to businesses.
TopIntroduction
Neither doubt nor change, how important education is in the world. No mattering what latitude, moment or culture, education lies as a basis for offering cohesion, guidance and strength to the society, and its only main purpose is the integral preparation of human beings towards a common welfare. In addition, nowadays, education does not only represent a right, but also a liability, and in parenthesis a condition for the economic, political and social development of a country, as well as for the nation’s permanent sovereignty.
It is unquestionable that Middle Education is significant because the quality observed at this level of studies enhances the preparation of the young generations that shall enroll in the workforce or shall continue their education as professionals. Moreover, it is transcendentally emphasised that, at this preparation stage, the people’s essential traces must be developed, so that their life’s project is defined.
Traditionally, the level of middle school studies has been considered as a preparation stage to enter at the university’s level and study a major programme. So much so that by this association, as the pre-exhibition room of higher education, there are still high-schools relying on universities, straightforwardly. But as time passes by, a technically terminal education or bivalent education, which trains for work and prepares for higher education, has been added to the conception of middle school studies.
In a globalized world, public policies are subordinated to the recommendations made by the International Organisations that regulate and set educational policies according to their own needs and interests. In this sense, educational competences, born in a business environment, have become the principle of curricular designs and the professionalisation of the body of teachers and principals in Elementary and Middle Schools.
Equally, knowledge management is immersed in today’s competitive environment, the organisations are facing great challenges, such as: globalisation, technological advances, economic agreements, the steady demographic growth, by only mentioning some of them. Therefore, we need to effectively and efficiently adapt to these challenges, as well as their tendencies, in order to survive to the globalisation.
In this context, the National College of Professional Technical Education (CONALEP, for its acronyms in Spanish) has become a milestone that offers Middle School students a competitively technical professionalisation in order to meet today’s requirements. From its origin, in 1978, this College has geared towards the preparation of technical professionals, who finished their elementary education, and has had as main aims: labor training, a school-industry-government liaison, communitary aid, and enterprise-oriented technological consultancy and support. Later on, in 1994, the CONALEP, adopted a Competence-based Education (CBE) framework, −starting the reform of the College’s educational model. Moreover, in 1999, students are granted the opportunity to continue their studies and to professionalize in some branches of higher education.
Nonetheless, and not mattering the multiple benefits, the CONALEP has been losing its institutional vision, and, so forth, the value and significance of this College for the country and the youth that are enrolled at this stage are being looked down. This vision is very often unaccredited by the CONALEP students and external observers due to the fact that mainly most students enrolling into this College show very low averages or an acceptance exam with negative results.
These observations must be studied from the educational and political conditions under which the College has been lying and that, finally, have labeled it as negative, and not as a choice for the personal development of the students who cannot step on higher-degree studies, or as a platform that encourages the students to reach higher goals by employing the tools acquired in the CONALEP. However, this is not the focus of this study, but one of its reasons.
Another worse problem is the absence of leadership within the College’s schools, which has damaged it up to its dismemberment, to a lack of unity and to little clarity of the institution’s vision and mission that generate much worse trouble situations. Among which, we can find weak infrastructure, non- professional teachers with work field experience, but that do not count on the necessary teaching practice to help students develop their competences, as well as the harsh contexts where these schools are located.