Fostering the human resources through education lies at the core of any developmental strategy: people are the most valuable asset of nations. In a time of rapid scientific and technological progress, budgetary difficulties and complex demographic dynamics, education acquires a high priority for nations. The twenty-first century embraces great opportunities but at the same time great challenges.
A general objective in this research is to design a bridge in which science and policy options interact and converge in two central themes of Mexico’s social agenda: education and population issues.
The analysis of demographic trends consists on developing three types of regional population scenarios until the year 2020: status quo, low population growth, and ageing population, with two alternative scenarios for the three components in nine strategically selected regions. The multiregional projection model treats all regions simultaneously and estimates the population by age, sex, and region of residence.
The analysis of educational issues consists of two approaches. One estimates the educational mobility of the students through the school’s system from one educational status to an upper level. It shows regional population scenarios for school enrolment for primary, secondary, bachelor, and mid-level professional until the year 2020, observing the levels of enrolment and dropout rates. The other approach looks at schooling as the major factor in the formation of human resources. A new demography-based index is proposed to measure the educational level of a population in terms of the average number of years a person spends in a literate state.
The study outlines demographic and educational challenges that Mexico and its regions face at the dawn of the twenty-first century and suggests some direct and indirect population and educational policy options to enhance the general wellbeing of all Mexicans.
Sergio Medina obtained his degree in public administration from the University of Guadalajara and a Diploma in public finance from the Institute of Public Administration in Jalisco. In the United States, he graduated from the University of Georgetown, with a Master’s degree in public policy specialising in social policy. He has been a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. Sergio Medina is currently a researcher and professor at El Colegio de México. Sergio has been a public official in the government of Jalisco and the federal government in Mexico City. The book is based on his PhD research at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
