Abstract:

In 2007 the Department of Education of the Government of Mexico City launched its Scholarship Programme for Universal Upper-secondary Education PREBU Prepa Sí, a comprehensive and integral strategy to address student retention.

The main goal of the Prepa Sí Programme is to ensure that all young people in the Mexico City willing to study at upper-secondary level can undertake their studies successfully and students will not leave school because of economic reasons.

Specific Goals:
• To give the opportunity to all young people of upper-secondary-school age to study
• To prevent young people studying at the upper secondary level from leaving their studies because of economic reasons.
• To improve the students’ academic attainment.
• To contribute to the student’s professional development.
• To improve students’ standard of living.
• To contribute to the improvement of the city and the relationship between young people and their city through community activities.

The main results of the evaluation of the Programme are described below:

• In September 2007 there were 128, 815 upper-secondary students enrolled in the Prepa Sí Programme and by December this number rose to 132 061. In January 2008 the beneficiary population was 151, 927 and by July 2008 the beneficiary population reached 180, 362 beneficiaries.

• In the academic year 2006-2007, the Upper-secondary school drop out rate in Mexico City was 16% and one year after the implementation of the Prepa Sí Programme, in the academic year 2007-2008, the drop out rate decreased to 6.08%. It is worth noting that for the population of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which accounts for 25% of the total beneficiary population, the drop out rate for the academic year 2007-2008 was zero.

• In regard to the academic performance, the grade point average of the Programme beneficiaries increased from 7.65 in December 2007 to 8.39 in June 2008. The percentage of students in the GPA rage 6.0-7.5 also decreased from 46% to 43%, while the population in the GPA range 7.6-9.0 increased from 44% to 46% and the percentage of the population in the GPA range 9.1-10 increased from 10% to 11%.

• As for the effect on wellbeing, the scholarship provided by the Prepa Sí Programme has a very high impact on low income households. For the beneficiaries that are part of families where a minimum salary is earned (13%), the economic stimulus accounts for 32% and 44% of the total monthly family income. The stimulus allows covering the costs related to education and also contributes to the family income and helps reducing the pressure of working.

• Regarding the beneficiaries’ opinion of the Programme, 70.9% of a sample population interviewed indicated that the scholarship is very important for them to continue their studies given that many of them have economical, school and family problems. The Scholarship then helps to mitigate this situation.

• The population interviewed rated the Programme with an 8.7 (on a 1 to 10 scale, 1o being the highest).

Keywords:

Scholarship Programme for Upper-secondary Education.