What are scholarships really for?
The figure is eloquent and speaks for itself: only 35.3% of the Benito Juárez Scholarship money ends up in something related to school. A study about the program says so. The rest, the other almost 65%, is funded into the family budget.
Meal? Yes. Transportation? Also. Clothes? Of course. Even savings or expenses that have nothing to do with notebooks or uniforms.
A check without control
Here is the detail that stings and spreads: the National Scholarship Coordination has no way of tracking what each peso is spent on. There are no monitoring mechanisms. The money is deposited and its official destination… fades away.
Households integrate the scholarship into their daily expenses.
That is the cold conclusion of the report, based on surveys of those receiving support. In practice, it is one more transfer to the domestic economy, not a labeled resource.
Experts clarify: this does not necessarily mean misuse. It reflects, above all, the tight economic reality of families. The scholarship arrives and helps plug urgent holes.
But then comes the caveat: if you don’t know where the money is going, how do you measure its real impact? How do you evaluate if it’s really helping kids stay in school?
The lack of clear objectives and evaluation turns the program into an opaque box. It is requested to strengthen monitoring mechanisms and redefine the approach.
Meanwhile, the scholarship works for what it is: immediate financial relief for the hardest hit pockets. The uncomfortable question remains: if only a third makes it to the classroom, is it still primarily an educational program?
