Mexico is the country that invests the least per student among the 38 member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Annual spending per primary school student amounts to 2,933 dollars, while the international average reaches 11,902 dollars—almost four times higher.
Countries with lower GDP per capita, such as Colombia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary, Lithuania, or Romania, allocate more resources per student than Mexico.
The OECD report “Education at a Glance 2024” confirms the country’s longstanding lag in educational investment, both in infrastructure and in funding for teachers and school operations.
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Adding to this context is the fact that a large share of the federal education budget is absorbed by universal scholarships, reducing the funds available for schools, universities, and improvement programs.
Moreover, the outlook will not change in 2026. According to the approved budget, Mexico will maintain educational spending equivalent to 3.19% of GDP—the lowest level since 2018—despite the slight overall increase.
Scholarships counted as educational investment
Eduardo Backhoff Escudero, scholar and former president of the National Institute for Educational Evaluation (INEE), explained that the “real” education spending is skewed by social transfers recorded as educational investment.
Backhoff noted that, of total education spending, about 1.1% of GDP corresponds to private expenditure, while public spending accounts for roughly 4% of GDP, adding up to 5.2%—below the OECD average.
The expert emphasized that the federal government allocates around 180 billion pesos to scholarships, which represents “about 15 or 16% of public education spending.”
That amount, he said, does not necessarily benefit those who need it most, and because it is universal, “it takes money that used to go to schools.” According to Backhoff, “we should give scholarships to those who need them, not to the entire population,” because making them universal “takes resources away from substantive education spending.”
Backhoff warned that this composition has pushed Mexico even further away from international standards: the OECD recommends that educational spending amount to around 20% of the public budget.
Decline in higher education
In higher education, the deterioration is more visible: per-student spending fell from about 78,000 pesos in the previous administration to just over 40,000 pesos today. This, despite the creation of universities such as the Benito Juárez system. “The sector that has suffered the most deterioration is higher education,” he said. Universities, he added, “have seen the largest increase in enrollment” but are now “doing more with much less.”
His assessment aligns with analysis from the Center for Economic and Budgetary Research (CIEP), which warns that in the 2026 Budget Proposal, per-student spending decreases in upper-secondary, higher education, and graduate programs, and increases only in basic education due to the expansion of scholarship programs.
Backhoff also stressed that universal scholarships have not improved coverage, retention, or learning. Coverage (the share of children served by age group) “has decreased” in primary and secondary school. Learning indicators also show a sharp decline: while in 2018 “nearly two out of three students learned the basics,” today “it is one out of three,” according to PISA results—the only available indicator after the elimination of INEE and later of MejoraEdu.
The expert further warned that universal scholarships may widen inequalities between states. Because aid is distributed equally to rich and poor areas, he said, differential vulnerability is ignored. In higher education, for example, the proportion of Indigenous students has declined while the proportion of non-Indigenous students has increased, reflecting an approximate “10% rise in inequity.”
Regarding the long-term cost of maintaining low-impact educational spending, Backhoff foresees prolonged stagnation: if policies do not change, “we will continue moving backward, and educational gaps between the poorest and the least poor will continue to widen”—the opposite of what the government promises.
The lowest investment since 2018
With the lowest investment in the OECD, a distorted internal distribution, and sustained deterioration in coverage and learning, Mexico faces an educational landscape marked by setbacks. Both international data and technical analyses agree that without a shift in budget priorities, the country will fall even further behind the rest of the world.
According to CIEP’s analysis of the 2026 Economic Package, Mexico will maintain educational spending equivalent to 3.19% of GDP, the lowest level since 2018. Although total education spending would increase slightly, cuts are concentrated in higher education, graduate studies, culture, and upper-secondary education, while the greatest growth is directed to basic-education scholarships such as the Rita Cetina Universal Scholarship, whose budget would increase by 58.5%.
“This composition preserves the gap between what Mexico invests and the international recommendation—between 4% and 6% of GDP—and reveals a system that prioritizes social transfers over strengthening human capital,” CIEP warns.
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