The quality of education in rural areas from the perspective of public policies

Abstract

The objective of this article is to deepen the concept of educational quality in the reality of
the Mexican Educational System. As a problem, it assumes the asymmetry of results and realities
experienced in the rural and urban context to question whether there is a common criterion on
‘educational quality’. The concept of educational quality is explored in the face of the federal norms
that protect the right to education. On the other hand, it explains the conceptual change that has
occurred in the conception of rurality, becoming increasingly diverse. A specific section describes
the Community School Model, which educationally serves dispersed and underpopulated
communities in Mexico. Methodologically, a hermeneutic reflection of three sources is proposed:
the concept of education, the wording of Article 3 of the Mexican Constitution with its various
changes and description of the rural educational environment in that period, and the Multigrade
Schools promoted by CONAFE as the system that reaches those territories. It is concluded that
educational quality is delimited by the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and the
conditions in which it is developed, the above framed by the following factors: (i) the dignification
of the person, (ii) the legal terms described in Art. 3, (iii) contextualized in the geographical reality
of the student.