ABSTRACT
The Federal Ministry of Education in Mexico was responsible for elementary education in the country. Prudencio Lopez Martinez believed that Council for the Promotion of Education would achieve its mission only if three important conditions were met. First, he wanted a high degree of autonomy for the new agency. Second, he was determined that Conafe should remain a small but creative organisation. Third, the focus of Conafe, according to Lopez Martinez, was to be on rural education. The young people who joined the Conafe experimental program had thus no career interest in rural education. The rural education program that evolved out of the experimental project was for the first time extended to 100 rural communities in the state of Guerrera in 1972-1973. The general consensus in educational circles in Mexico appears to be that the Conafe Program compares favorably with the national urban oriented elementary education program in spite of its newness and severe handicaps.
