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From: brewster@watdcsu.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: who should pay for education. sort of. (Mexico)
Message-ID: <3076@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Mar-87 00:06:37 EST
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.3076
Posted: Wed Mar  4 00:06:37 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Mar-87 03:38:01 EST
References: <215@fornax.uucp> <245@pembina.alberta.UUCP>
Distribution: can
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
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>From: cdshaw@alberta.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
>Actually, Mexico does this already. You have to have a certain (large) minimum
>average to stay in school free. Basically a policy whereby only the rich kids 
>can afford to be lazy or stupid. Seems fairly reasonable to me, but the problem
>is that everybody ends up with grades at or above the minimum, since the 
>government wants everyone to have an education. Mexican students recently
>went to the streets to protest proposed changes to the policy.

Relatively similar to the situation in France.    Tuition is virtually free 
(even cheaper than in Quebec :*) ), and students have wide leaway in 
choosing university and program of their choice.   The government wanted to
"crack down" by raising tuition (from something like $100 to $150 per year)
and by requiring that students diplomas be imprinted with the name of the
institution that the degree was granted from.    Students marched in protest
of this radical policy.  

The result of Frances education policy is that universities generally consist
of a small group of run down buildings, with no maintenance or upkeep, and
extremely out-of-date equipment.    Everyone chooses to become a doctor or
lawyer, and people returning from France are usually most amazed at the fact
that there are lots of lawyers/doctors in France that are on the equivalent of
Canadian UI.  

I suppose that some people would not be too upset about doctors/lawyers having
to earn a living :*) as opposed to having artificially high salaries maintained
by a professional body which restricts entry to the field, but I don't think
anyone will say that Frances education system can match the quality available
in Canada.

>Chris Shaw    cdshaw@alberta
                                                   
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