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Practice 6 XXX Academic and educational environment
AS TIME GOES BY

SOCIAL LANGUAGE PRACTICE: Write a short report about a historical event.
praCTiCe 1: Exchange opinions
Secretaria de
Educación Pública

The hisTory of sep

In 1919, there was a serious lack of adequate organization in
public education in Mexico. In 1917, only 148 out of 344
schools in the Federal District remained open.

When Adolfo de la Huerta became president, the
changes began. Firstly, the University Department began
performing the educational function that the Federal District
Government used to perform.

In order to comply with the democratization in the
educational administration and with that which was
postulated in the third constitutional article, action at a
national level was needed. It was not enough to just declare
free, secular and obligatory education, certain measures
were needed in order to achieve it.

The project to create a Federal Secretariat of Public
Education required constitutional reform. Meanwhile, José
Vasconcelos Calderón, who was defending the idea of
putting education in the federal purview, became the rector
of the National University.
As Dean of the National University and director of the
University Department, Vasconcelos began to plan the
project in a practical way. He established different measures
with the aim of consolidating the several educational levels.
He began the school breakfast program and organized the
new Secretariat of Education into a departmental structure.
The three fundamental departments were:

1. The Schools Department, which coordinated all levels of
education, from kindergarten to university.

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