Within the context of the World Forumon Early Care and Education that willtake place May 13-16 in Acapulco,México, it would be interesting for youto know a little bit about child care inthis Latin American country. Economi-cal, social, and cultural factors such asthe industrialization and modernizationof the country, the NAFTA and global-ization of the world market paradoxi-cally have impacted the structure andfunctioning of the majority of thenuclear and extended Mexican families.These changes have resulted in wide-spread economic needs and societaldisadvantages. Even more, the increas-ing need and motivation of morewomen to enroll in schools and join thework force means more mothers workfull time out of the home.

Ideologically and pragmatically, thosefactors have also significantly influencedthe conceptions of the child as a humanbeing, subject of rights, infant develop-ment, early infant stimulation and edu-cation, as well as child rearing and childcare practices. Therefore, this article willaddress the following current issues:what about history, how prevalent childcare is in México, to what extent childcare is used for working families, whyfamilies in México use child care, whatagencies provide child care services, thelicensing/accreditation and qualitystandards for services, and the bigchallenges facing the early childhoodcommunity in México.

What about history?

Historically, our ancient cultures con-sidered children very important withinthe family. However, the Hispanic con-cord culturally impacted childrearingvalues and beliefs with the orphans ofwar. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until the19th century that in México child carewas established to support workingmothers within a market setting.

Throughout the 20th century dramaticchanges have occurred in regard tochild care conceptions and practices.Since the ‘20s, the first formal childcare facilities were originally calledGuarderías infantiles where infants 0 to 6 years old had custodial careduring several hours a day whilemothers were at work.

In the ‘60s, the 134th ConstitutionalArticle stated that child care was a laborright for working mothers within thegovernment; services were improved,including nutrition and instrumentalcare to young infants.

Child Care in MéxicoWritten by Clotilde Juárez Hernández, Ph.D., Universidad Pedagógica Nacional

It wasn’t until the ‘70s that the MexicanEducation Ministry (Secretaría de Edu-cación Pública, SEP) became legallyresponsible for coordinating and form-ing the structure and functioning of thechild care facilities which were con-ceived as educational settings likenursery schools, administered withinthe context of the initial education,equivalent to early childhood educa-tion. Consequently, their name changedto “Infant Development Centers.” Thestaff were trained to provide childrenwith educational stimulation in order tofoster their growth and development.

In the ‘80s, there was an overwhelmingnationwide child care demand of ser-vices that SEP had to cover. Due to thehigh economic costs, an innovativemodality was created — a non school-ing alternative option for early child-hood education. Minimally educatedyoungsters from local rural, marginal,and indigenous communities weretrained as community instructors towork directly with parents. Their taskswere to inform parents on infants’growth and development, and to orientparents on how to stimulate theirchildren’s development at home. Theirwork was supported by pedagogicalmanuals and guidelines with specificobjectives and a wide variety ofactivities to stimulate infants of distinctdevelopmental ages: infants, toddlers,and preschoolers.

Although in México elementary andsecondary education have been compul-sory, in the ‘90s, as a result of a newtrend to foster equal rights for all chil-dren in our country — from the urban,marginal, rural, and indigenous areas,from ‘normal’ and disabled popula-tions, from poor and middle class com-munities — there was a new orientationin the public education system calledthe Educational Modernization of basiceducation (preschool, elementary, andsecondary schools).

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ISSSTE (Institute of Security and SocialServices for Governmental Employees)and IMSS (Mexican Institute of SocialSecurity) are two national heath institu-tions that have their own IDCs that notonly provide child care services to theirown employees, but also cover specificpopulations: ISSSTE focuses its child careservices to the federal governmentemployees and IMSS to support lowincome working mothers from theprivate productive sector with direct orsubrogated child care services.

CONAFE (National Council of Educa-tional Foment), as it was indicatedearlier, predominantly serves rural andindigenous communities in a non-school-ing modality, focusing in parental train-ing. It administers small centers whereparents are informed and oriented inregard to their infant’s development,child rearing practices, nutrition, health,early developmental stimulation. Actu-ally, parents are trained to becomecompetent parents.

It is important to mention that in Febru-ary 2003 it was announced that a politicalalliance between the Presidential Gov-ernment and SNTE (National Syndicateof Teachers — the largest in Latin Amer-ica) would elaborate, publish, and dis-tribute three volumes by age: 1) 0-5, 2)6-12, and 3) 13-15 years of Parents’ Guideto Educate their Children. The implicit

Such reorientation also impacted theearly childhood formal (and informal)education for children 0 to 4 years old bycreating adequate educational contentand meaningful learning experiencesrelated to the local social context. Educa-tors were considered to be educationalagents in the children’s balanced andharmonic developmental and educationalprocesses. The major aims from the pro-grams were to respect and to foster thechildren’s spontaneous exploration, dis-covery, and creativity; to rescue moralvalues and traditions; as well as to rescueand preserve the ecology. By the mid ‘90s,Early Childhood and Preschool Educationprograms were joined to work togetherwithin SEP.

The most revolutionary and unexpectedMexican educational reform took place atthe end of 2001, when legislation statedthat preschool education also was com-pulsory. This action has several political,legal, and educational implications whichtouched early childhood education:preschoolers are now considered to bechildren ages 3 to 6, not 4 to 6 as earlier.Educators are required to professionalizetheir work by studying a four yearbaccalaureate educational universityprogram on Preschool and ElementaryEducation. There is a grace period of sixyears to attain such an ambitious goalnationwide. It is expected that thoseteachers will be also licensed to work inthe early childhood educational level.

After this brief historical overview aboutthe evolution in early childhood educa-tion, it will be easier to comprehend thefollowing child care issues.

How prevalent is child care in México?

The National Educational System (SEP)conceives of Early Childhood Educationas an educational process that takes placewithin the Infant Development Center(IDC), the prototypical education settingor school that provides child care as assis-

tance and education to small children (45days to 5.11 years of age) of workingmothers; and that supports working mothers during their labor journey inorder to enhance quantitatively andqualitatively their productivity. Physical,affective, social, and cognitive children’sdevelopment is fostered by trained edu-cators through a variety of activities.IDCs are also equipped to provide chil-dren with medical, psychological, socialwork, pedagogical, and nutritional ser-vices. Parents are also oriented in childcare practices, development, and earlystimulation.

The number of IDCs has recently increas-ed in the big cities due to even more par-ticipation of women in diverse productiveand social activities. In the school year2001-2002, the SEP reported a total of2,848 IDCs, 53% of the totals are to publicnursery schools (33% federal, 20% state)and 47% are private. These figures do notconsider other institutions.

What agencies provide child care servicesand what is the nature of their services?

Within the national educational system,SEP is the major provider of Early Child-hood Education and Care services inurban populations through two types ofeducational settings: Infant DevelopmentCenters (IDC) that serve children of differ-ent ages: infants, toddlers, and preschool-ers, and preschool settings exclusively forpreschoolers. Both have trained andlicensed early childhood teachers. There is the national and Federal District DIF(Integral Family Development), an institu-tion that serves not only urban, but alsomarginal and vulnerable populations.Since approximately 20 years ago, as aresult of a social movement, there is animportant growing number of NGOs suchas popular community autonomous childcare centers assisted by non-professionalmothers who have been authorized toformally work as educators either innursery schools or at home.

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educational model “Better parents, betterchildren” is intended to impact Mexicanchildren and adolescences’ specific abili-ties, behaviors, attitudes, and values.

To what extent is child care usedfor working families?

Child care services are mostly requestedby urban and marginal workingmothers. A pregnant working motherhas the right of a remunerated maternityleave for three months to give birth andcare for her newborn. After that time,although she may have child care facili-ties at work, she may prefer to leave herinfant for several months with a relative(predominantly maternal or paternalgrandmothers) or a domestic employeeat home before the baby actually isenrolled in an IDC.

SEP registered in 2000-2001 school year3,423,608 preschool children: 90% servedin public schools and 10% in private.From those 3% went to IDCs-SEP, 1% toDIF, and .30% to CONAFE. By the 2001-2002 school year, SEP reported a signifi-cant increased number of children servedin public (Federal and State) and privateIDCs: there was a total of 271,960 chil-dren (51% boys and 49% girls; 18%babies, 48% toddlers, and 34% preschool-ers). Current figures for this year: IMSSprovides Early Child Care Servicesnationwide to a total of 142,540 children;ISSSTE serves in its Nursery Schools forEarly Wellbeing and Development 20,425children.

Why dofamilies in

Méxicouse child

care?

According tothe 2000national popu-lation censusdata (INEGI,2002), approxi-

mately 37% of women are part of thetotal labor force, most of them are work-ing mothers with one, two, or even threesmall children. It is inferred, then, thatthe major reason why families in thiscountry use child care services is becausein a nuclear family both parents work or in a single parent household, themother is employed outside of home.When both parents work, but extendedfamily is available, it is more likely thatrelatives care for young infants in theirhomes. The private child care centers ora domestic worker are options thatmiddle class families can afford. In poorfamilies without a social supportive net-work, some working mothers may eitherbring their young children to work orleave them alone at home under an oldersibling’s care.

Despite SEP implementation since theearly ‘90s of the educational integrationproject of disabled children into theregular classroom, working-classmothers with disabled children still haveto stop working and leave their employ-ment and its corresponding income todevote their time and energy for caringfor their children (Juárez-Hernández,2002).

What are the licensing andaccreditation, and quality

standards for services?

In México, there are two main types ofpublic or private institutions to profes-sionalize early childhood educators: thetraditional ‘Normal’ Schools and the

most recently created (in the ‘80s) Peda-gogical Universities. The highest degreeof education for an educator is a fouryear baccalaureate program for teachers.Other lower levels of education are muchmore related to specific training such aschild care of small infants.

Some quality standards for public as wellas private IDCs are sanitary and safebuildings, interdisciplinary and trainedstaff, low children ratio (5 per teacher),teachers supported by one or two assis-tants, educational programs, develop-mental stimulation, and sensitive care.

What are the big challengesfacing the early childhood

community in México?

The major challenges are sufficient publicbudget to support early childhood edu-cation for low income full time workingfamilies, creation of more IDCs, commu-nity support to enhance the quality oftheir own IDCs, a massive professional-ization of early childhood educationprograms in order to provide sensitiveand comprehensive early child care andeducation services to all children, andparental information and involvement intheir children’s education.

References

Juárez-Hernández, C. (2002). “The struc-ture, dynamics, and stress managementof families with blind infants,” paperpresented in the XXVII InternationalCongress of Applied Psychology,Singapore, July 7-12, 2002.

Servantes, J., Olmos, J. G., & Martha-Elba, E. (February 9, 2003). Objetivo: ElAdoctrinamiento. Proceso, No. 1371.(Weekly Mexican magazine of informa-tion and analysis).

Internet references:www.inegi.gob.mxwww.sep.gob.mx

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY BONNIE NEUGEBAUER