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International Office of Education
EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT
National Report of Argentina
by
National Ministry of Education
March 2001
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 2
CONTENTS
CONTENTS.............................................................................................................................. 2
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 4
THE ARGENTINE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN 1990..................................................................... 7
NEW LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF THE ARGENTINE EDUCATION...................................................... 9
ORGANIZATION, STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM................. 12
POLICIES, METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS OF EVALUATION ..................................................... 23
1.2. MAIN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE SUCCESSES OF THE LAST 10
YEARS .................................................................................................................................... 26
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF ARGENTINE ...................................................................... 26
MAIN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE SUCCESS ................................................................ 28
A KIND OF SYNTHESIZED ....................................................................................................... 47
1.3. EXPERIENCES FROM THE PROCESS OF CHANGE AND REFORM OF THE
EDUCATION SYSTEMS (APPROACHES ADOPTED, SUCCESSFUL OR FAILED
STRATEGIES, MAIN PROBLEMS) .................................................................................. 48
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 48
THE NEW WAYS OF GOVERNING THE SYSTEM: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE NATIONAL
AND PROVINCIAL AUTHORITIES ............................................................................................. 48
THE TRANSFORMATION APPROACH ADOPTED ........................................................................ 49
NEW INSTRUMENTS FOR IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL QUALITY ............................................... 50
MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: AUTONOMY VS. CENTRALIZED CONTROL .. 50
THE CHANGE OF STRUCTURE ................................................................................................. 51
ACCESS, EQUITY AND QUALITY ............................................................................................. 52
THE LACK OF ARTICULATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION ........................................................... 54
1.4. MAJOR PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION AT
THE START OF THE XXI CENTURY.............................................................................. 56
COORDINATION OF FEDERAL EDUCATION POLICY.................................................................. 56
EXTENSION OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION ON A FOOTING OF QUALITY AND EQUITY .............. 57
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 3
IMPROVEMENT OF THE INFORMATION AND EVALUATION SYSTEMS........................................ 58
SECONDARY EDUCATION....................................................................................................... 59
EDUCATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTS....................................................................... 60
STRENGTHENING OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION .................................................................. 61
THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN SCHOOLS ...................................................... 62
INTEGRATION OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM.............................................................. 62
2. EDUCATION CONTENTS AND LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR THE XXI
CENTURY (NURSERY/PRE-SCHOOL, PRIMARY/BASIC AND FORMAL AND
INFORMAL SECONDARY EDUCATION)....................................................................... 65
CURRICULUM SETTING, PRINCIPLES AND ASSUMPTIONS ........................................................ 65
SETTING OF PROVINCIAL CURRICULAR DESIGNS AND CURRICULAR ORIENTATIONS FOR
SPECIAL PROGRAMS............................................................................................................... 66
DEFINITION OF CURRICULAR STRUCTURES ............................................................................ 67
STUDY PLANS, TIME ALLOCATED TO EACH SUBJECT OR AREA. LENGTH OF SCHOOL YEAR.
NUMBER OF WEEKS WORKED ................................................................................................ 69
TEACHER TRAINING............................................................................................................... 83
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 4
INTRODUCTION
The present report aims to describe the main improvements and reforms that have taken place in
the Argentine educational system for the last decade of the XX century. This document develop a
state of situation of the Argentine education; it analyzes successes; it describes the difficulties and
obstacles that still remain, and presents the objectives that orient public policies for the
educational sector at the beginnings of the XXI century.
The ’90 were a distinctive decade due to the deep program of reforms on the State and the
Argentine economy, process that was accompanied with varied reforms of the sectors of health,
education, development and social security. In the area of education, a new normative ordering
was engendered at national levels. The new ordering modified the regulation of the educational
system as a whole. On the basis of legal changes, embracing and innovative policies were
developed on aspects of structure of levels and cycles, content and curriculum, system evaluation,
training and development for teachers. This report presents a general analysis of this complex
process of changes.
The document is divided in two parts:
The First Part describes the new normative frame set up for the educational system, the main
quantitative and qualitative successes on school access, quality and equity, and the major
problems and challenges that the development of the education in Argentine will have to face
during the 2001 – 2010 decade.
The Second Part details the principles, levels and processes of elaboration of the curriculum in its
three levels of organization: the federal level, the provincial level and the school level.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 5
Few explanations about this report
The structure of the current educational system is described respectful to the way in which it was
legislated. The achievement of the new educational system, started during the ´90´s, is developed
differently according to times and modalities. Thus, the implementation of the new system
produced an important regional heterogeneity in the different provinces. The argentine
educational system is under a process of transition and therefore, it has been chosen to describe it
as the effective norm establishes1.
Initials
TTP: Trayectos Técnico Profesionales. TPT Techno-professional Tracks
CFyE: Consejo Federal de Cultura y Educación. FCCE Federal Council of Culture and
Education
EGB: Educación General Básica. BGE Basic General Education
FGF: Formación General de Fundamento correspondiente a la Educación Polimodal. GTF
General Training on Fundamentals corresponding to Polimodal Education
FO: Formación Orientada correspondiente a la Educación Polimodal. OT Oriented Training
corresponding to Polimodal Education
INDEC: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos. NISC National Institute of Statistics and
Census
MCyE: Ministerio de Cultura y Educación. MCyE Ministry of Culture and Education
CBC: Contenidos Básicos Comunes. BCC Basic Common Contents
CBO: Contenidos Básicos Orientados. BOC Basic Oriented Contents
Glossary
BACHILLER: Modality of Secondary education oriented towards an academic formation, of five
years of length, organized from a general curriculum and intended to prepare students to
continue their studies in higher education.
ESCUELA COMERCIAL: Modality of Secondary education of five years of length. It was
mainly oriented towards the development of technicians of accounting and management of
productive activities. This degree allowed the enrolment into higher education.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 6
ESCUELA TÉCNICA: Modality of Secondary education oriented towards technical
development of six years of length. It was intended to develop qualified experts in the different
branches of the industrial sector. This modality gave a general scientific and technical
development (Science, design, drawing skills) and a professional training for specific areas of
productivity (electro-mechanics, chemistry, electronics, building construction). Since the second
half of the XX century, it allowed the enrolment into higher education.
PLAN DE ESTUDIOS (PLANS OF STUDY): Legal Norm that defines the goals and
objectives, the subjects, the working units (carga horaria) and the selection and sequences of the
contents that are to be taught in the different levels and modalities of the schools.
ESCUELA AGRARIA: Modality of Secondary education oriented towards agro activities.
ESCUELA ARTÍSTICA: Modality of Secondary education and high education oriented towards
different kinds of artistic education.
ESCUELA NORMAL: institutions of non-university higher education oriented towards
teacher´s development.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 7
1. 1. MAIN REFORMS AND INNOVATIONS INTRODUCED IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN
THE LAST 10 YEARS
The argentine educational system in 1990
Until the beginning of the ´90, the educational system of Argentina didin´t has an organic law
that regulates the functioning of the whole of levels and modalities for all the national territory.
The “Common educational Law # 1420”, enacted in 1884, established the basic principles of the
primary school. It was in force in the national territories but not in the provinces2. That law
established basic obligatory education of seven years of length and defined the gratuitous and lay
character of the public education. The provinces had the responsibility of primary schooling
according to the National Constitution dated back to 1853. However, in 1905, the denominated
Law Láinez3 allowed the National State to create primary schools in those provinces that
requested it.
On the contrary, the Secondary schooling didn’t have specific laws. The creation of the National
School of Buenos Aires (1862) is recognized as the departure point of the level and, particularly,
of the bachillerato, which was one of the branches of the Secondary level. Towards the endings of
XIX century, institutions of this kind had been created in most of the provinces. That end of
century gave rise to other two modalities: Escuela Comercial and Escuelas Técnicas. At the beginning
of the XX century, the first institutions were created that would give origin to the other
traditional branches of Secondary Education: Educación Artística and Educación Agraria. So that, the
branches of the Secondary School were settled: Bachillerato, Comercial, Técnico, Artistico and Agrario.
(See glossary)
In 1869 began, as an organized area, the development of teachers. This was carried out in
Normal Schools; institutions that belonged to the Secondary level that remained functioning until
the 1960´s. In 1969, the development of teachers was constituted as a tertiary non-university
modality. Higher education recognized its beginnings in the creation of Universidad de Córdoba
(1613) and Universidad de Buenos Aires (1821). In 1874 the Law #1597 was enacted and started the
regulation of the functioning of this level. Through out the XX century there were several
university laws that regulated particular aspects, like the functioning of private universities. Up to
1995 was effective the law # 23.068, which was enacted during the first years of the returned to
democracy. This norm, inspired by the principles of autonomy and university co-government,
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 8
reestablished higher education statutes dated back to 1966. The year of 1966 represents the last
stage of the normalized performance of the public Universities.
Several attempts of reform of the educational system followed one another throughout the
century but, in general, they didn’t modified substantial aspects of the structure configured
between the endings of the XIX century and the beginnings of the XX century. The most
important administrative reform was the transference of the primary schools from the Nation to
the provinces governments (1978). Those schools had been created over 70 years – since the
enactment of Láinez Law – by the national State.
By the endings of 1990, the educational system was organized in four levels:
�� Initial, for children up to five years old
�� Primary, obligatory and of seven years in length, for children of 6 to 12 years old
�� Secondary, of 5 or 6 years in length, due to it modality, for young people of 12 to 18 years
old.
�� Higher education, divided into two subsystems: university and non-university, the last of
which mainly constituted the Institutes for Teacher Development.
In addition to those levels, institutions of Artistic Education and Special Education existed as
well as initiatives related to Adult Education. Embryonic postgraduate studies, with seat in
universities and other academic institutions diverse in its origins began to consolidate.
The government of the educational system was distributed between the national State, the
provinces and the City of Buenos Aires. The provinces and the City of Buenos Aires managed
most of the Initial and Primary Schools and part of the Secondary and non-university High
Schools. The national State managed a large number of the institutions of these two last levels.
This disposition constrained the simultaneous existence, in the Secondary level, of a great deal of
curricula accepted for each modality, since diverse experiences taken ahead in the different
jurisdictions accumulated one after another. The National Universities, alike today, were
autonomous but they depended financially on National Ministry of Education.
During the 1980´s, after the returning of democracy, debates about the situations of the argentine
educational system brought new problematic issues into the agenda. Ways of management,
quality of teaching, justice and equity on access and permanence in the educational system were
part of the above-mentioned agenda. Between 1984 and 1987, the National Pedagogical Congress
was held and during the meetings, the educational situation was analyzed. The Congress turned
out to be a space of agreements on the necessity of fulfillment of changes to the system. In the
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 9
National Pedagogical Congress, as an open space of assembly, partook the educative community,
State agencies, civil and politics institutions as well as citizenship in general.
New legal framework of the argentine education
During the 90´s the educational system was traversed by strong changes. From laws that
attempted a reordering of the educational system and according to educational policies brought
forth by the national State and provinces, the National Congress enacted the Federal Law of
Education. This law (1993) regulates the argentine education in all its levels and modalities.
This Law, along with the Law of Transference of Educative Services (Law Nº 24,049) of 1991
and the Law of Superior Education (Law Nº 24521) of 1995, represents the normative frame that
impelled and supported the transformation of the system on the last decade. The present frame is
completed with the set of Federal Agreements subscribed between the provinces and the Nation
in the core of the Federal Council of Culture and Education. (FCCE).
National Constitution
The National Constitution, dated from 1853, was reformed in successive opportunities. The last
reform, made in 1994 and in force today, contains 3 articles referred specifically to education:
�� Article 5 establishes the obligation of the provinces to assure the primary schooling
�� Article 14 prescribes that within citizen rights are included those of teaching and learning.
�� Article 75, in two of its subparts, attributes to the National Congress the power of:
“To provide the means to the prosperity of the country, the development and well-being of all
the provinces, and to the progress of enlightening, prescribing plans of general and higher
education. (subpart 18)
“To enact laws of organization and basic to education that reinforce: the national unity respecting
the provinces and local particularities ensuring the retention of responsibility under State custody;
propitiates family and social participation; to promote democratic values and equality of
opportunities and possibilities without any discrimination; and to guarantee the principles of free
access and equity of the State public education and the autonomy and autarky of the national
universities.” (subpart 18)
Law of Transference of Educational Services (Law #24.049)
This law established the transference of the educational institutions of Secondary and non-
university Tertiary level to the provinces and to the City of Buenos Aires. In this way the direct
management of the schools by the National Ministry of Education was ceased. The
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 10
instrumentation of the process of decentralization of the educational services took place between
1992 and 1994 by means of the subscription of transference agreements held by the State and
each one of the provinces and City of Buenos Aires. The transference completed the process
initiated decades before. The landmark of it was the transference of the national primary schools
to the provinces made in 1978.
Federal Law of Education (Law # 24.195)
On April 14th, 1993, the National Congress enacted Law 24.195. This is the first statutory law
that legislate on the totality of the instances of the argentine educational system: defines its
objectives, transforms the academic structure and establishes the necessity to prescribe Common
Basic Contents for all the levels. In addition it regulates the educative levels; the government of
the system, the State and private management, formal and non- formal education, the common
and special education, children, young and adult education, and technical and artistic education.
This law established:
1) the implementation of a gradual and progressive structure compounded of:
�� Initial Level, for children of 3 to 5 years old, for which the last stage is obligatory;
�� General Basic Education, obligatory and of nine years in length;
�� Polimodal, of a minimum of three years in length;
�� Undergraduate Studies;
�� Postgraduate Studies;
�� Other special modalities – Special Education, Adults Education and Artistic Education -.
2) The 10 years of obligatory schooling include the last stage of Initial level and the nine years of
the Basic General Education. This supposes an extension of the common basic education, from
the previous 7 years of Primary School to the nine years of the Basic General Education.
3) The distribution of responsibilities between the State and the provinces and City of Buenos
Aires and the strengthening of the spaces for federal agreement.
4) The creation of a Federal Network of Continue Development of teachers in order to train,
develop and update the whole body of teachers along the country.
5) The creation of a National System of Evaluation of Quality of Education, which incorporates
to the argentine educational system an important tool for monitoring and control.
The national State, the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires were compelled to guarantee the
principles of free access, the fulfilment of the obligatory assisting to school and the organization
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 11
of special welfare plans for children of Initial level and for those enrolled in Special Education
with unsatisfied basic needs. The investment in the educational system must be supported,
according to the Law, with the resources determined by the corresponding budgets: of the
Nation, of the provinces, or that of the City of Buenos Aires
Law of Higher Education
The Law #24.521 (1995) of Higher education (University and non – university modalities) has
been conceived as an ample regulatory frame for all of the institutions of that educational level. It
introduces important innovations between which some of the following can be found:
- Imposes important requirements for the creation of new universities, public or private, which
has to be supported by feasibility studies and solid institutional projects, fully evaluated.
- Creates a system of institutional evaluation, which includes external periodic evaluations
under the responsibility of a decentralized state body or of associations of evaluation properly
accredited.
- Imposes the accreditation of all the postgraduate studies and of those graduate studies for
professions that might put in danger health, security, rights, goods or inhabitants
development.
- Fixes patterns attended to ensure a minimum academic performance of the students
- Decentralizes salary policies, promoting an enlargement of the financing autarchy of the
universities
- Establishes the responsibilities for the support of the Public Higher Education under the
State custody.
The law above mentioned step forward in the re-definition of the relationship between the
Universities and the State. The establishment of regulator bodies that promoted changes in that
level are defined within the spirit of the law. The CONEAU (National Commission of
Evaluation and University Accreditation) allowed focusing in the construction of parameters that
deal with the quality of teaching activities offered by these institutions.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 12
Organization, structure and management of the educational system
Organization and government
The Federal Law of Education establishes the necessity of strengthen the government and
management of the education as a concurrent and settle responsibility of the Federal
Government, the Provincial Governments and of the City of Buenos Aires. The National
Ministry of Culture and Education has to set the educational policies and to unify criteria
between jurisdictions in the scope of the Federal Council of Culture and Education. This is to be
done through agreements and consensus.
The politic – institutional method of organization adopted by the Federal Government on
matters of education for each province depends on the effective legislation in each case, on the
historical and cultural peculiarities and on the developing and complexities of the educational
system. In some provinces exists Ministries of Education, while in others there are State
Secretaries and in other cases education is administered by General Boards.
The provinces are responsible for the management of the buildings of all the levels and
modalities. In some jurisdictions, the municipalities constitute the local units of administration of
the educational service, but this modality is not generalized.
The City of Buenos Aires, due to the magnitude of the educational services that it has, works as
another jurisdiction of the National System and has the faculties pertinent to the provincial
management. In this sense, it counts with services of education of all the levels and special
regimes.
At the school level, the focus was set in the adjustment of the traditional ways of approaching
work. The adjustment was directed towards the reconstructing the uses of time and space and
was carried out through special projects that took into consideration local needs. In brief, those
criteria points to the constructions of a school characterized as a unit relatively autonomous and
self-managed.
The new attribution of functions for the National Ministry, the Federal Council of Culture and
Education and the jurisdictions, restructured the relation between the Nation and the provinces.
The Federal Council of Culture and Education played an essential role in the construction of the
policies for the implementation of the Federal Law of Education. This was achievable because, at
its core, the public officers of the educational bodies for each jurisdiction agreed on ways and
time assigned to the transformation of the system.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 13
Duties of the National Ministry of Education
The National Ministry of Education has under its scopes the following duties:
�� guarantee the fulfilment of the main objectives and duties defined by the Law;
�� favour an “adequate decentralization of the educational services”;
�� develop national and federal programs of technical and financing cooperation with the
intention of promoting the quality of the education;
�� coordinate and perform research projects and cooperate with national universities and other
specific national bodies;
�� promote the use of means of social communication in order to spread out educational and
cultural programs;
�� elaborate rules of re-assessment of international equivalencies of degrees of study and
diplomas;
�� coordinate and manage international and bilateral technical and financing cooperation;
�� contribute technically to the training and developing of the profession in all the levels;
�� elaborate annual reports with the results of the evaluation of the system
Also, and due to agreements with the Federal Council of Culture and Education, the National
Ministry of Education has the responsibility of:
�� establishing the objectives and Common Basic Contents of the different levels and special
regimes of education;
�� elaborating general norms of equivalence of degrees and studies;
�� promoting and organizing a net of training, development and update for teachers and
other personnel related to the educational system;
�� evaluating the functioning of the educational system in every jurisdiction, levels, cycles
and regimes.
On the other hand, in coordination with the Federal Council of Culture and education it has to
implement special programs that guarantee the access, permanence and level fulfilment of the
students in all the levels and cycles of the system, and manage its own educational services and
those of support and technical aid (planning, quality evaluation, statistic, research, an so).
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 14
Duties of the Federal Council of Culture and Education
The Federal Law of Education establishes that the scope of coordination and agreement of the
system is the Federal Council of Culture and Education and has among its duties that of unifying
criteria between jurisdiction. In addition to the responsibilities established in 1980, date of its
constitution, the following tasks were included:
�� to stipulate the Basic Common Contents, the design of the curriculum for each modality and
the means of evaluation of the system;
�� to agree on the mechanisms for the recognition and equivalence of studies, degrees and the
rest of the papers that certifies whether formal or informal education;
�� to agree on the Basic Common Contents for the development of teachers and the required
certifies for professional performance;
�� to agree on the pedagogical standards required to exert teaching profession in each of the
artistic branch for the different levels and for special regimes.
�� to promote and to spread out innovative experiences and organize the exchange of public
officers, specialist and teachers;
�� to consider and present orientations that tend to the preserving and developing of the
national culture;
�� to guarantee family participation in the educational planning, and include teachers
organizations and renown private educational institutions;
�� to cooperate on matters of normative that helps to keep the link with the National Congress
and legislatures of the different jurisdictions.
Duties of the provincial government:
Provincial authorities have under their scope the following responsibilities:
�� to plan, to organize and to manage the educational system within its jurisdiction;
�� to stipulate the curriculum for the different levels, cycles and regimes according to the frame
agreed with the Federal Council of Culture and Education;
�� to organize and to manage the educational buildings pertaining to the state and to authorize
and to supervise the buildings of the private sphere within its jurisdiction;
�� to apply the decisions of the Federal Council of Culture and Education with the necessary
fitness
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 15
�� to evaluate periodically the system of education within the area of its competence;
�� to promote the participation of the organizations of teachers and of other members related to
the education for the bettering of the quality of the education.
The private sector
Although the Federal Law of Education establishes the frame of action for the institutions of
education of the private sector, a special agreement of the Federal Council of Culture and
Education determines the guidelines that ruled their functioning. The private educational services
are subject to previous recognition and to the supervision of the officers of education.
The recognition within the official system of education faculties the private institutions to:
�� organize and support themselves;
�� select and to promote its chief personnel, teachers, administrators and other personnel;
�� decide on matters of the use of school buildings;
�� enrol, qualify, examine, promote, allows transferences of students of different modalities,
certifies and extends diplomas;
�� apply it own regime of coexistence
�� elaborate and custody pertinent documentation
The jurisdictions fix conditions of caducity of recognition and/or State support according to
criteria of reasonability, equity and legality. This has to be done with a substantive information
gather through administrative inspections and with the guarantee of the owner participation. In
addition, it must be conducted according to the legal frame about proceedings and constitutional
rights.
The curricular transformation in the jurisdictions considers the rights of the institution of private
management to formulate plans and experimental study programs whenever they are compatible
with the new academic and institutional organization of the argentine system of education.
The teachers of the institutions of education of private management that were recognized have
the right to a minimum salary equal to that of the teachers of the state institutions and must have
official degrees recognized by the current norm of each jurisdiction.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 16
The structure of the educational system
The new structure of the National System of Education includes, as it was explained above, the
following levels: Initial, General Basic Education, Polimodal, Higher Education and Postgraduate
Education. The levels define the tracks in which the system will have to take care of the
fulfilment of the necessities stated by the society. Those necessities are determined by particular
contexts related to space and time patterns. The levels correspond to individual needs specified
by the evolutionary process, and are articulated with necessities pertaining to the psycho-
biological and socio-cultural development. The length of the level is related to the social and
personal necessities that concerns the education such as:
- the prevention and early education, and the accurate aid that guarantees the quality of the
results through all the stages of the learning process.
- the acquisition of the basic competences, the appropriation of the basic and common
contents essential to the population
- the mastering of knowledge and intermediate capacities, desirables for everyone;
- the fulfilment of good levels of development and of differential and optional competences.
As far as the structure of the system, the law establishes that the levels and special regimes must
articulate themselves in order to facilitate horizontal and vertical mobilization of the students and
indicates the elemental characteristics of each kind of education and level. These dispositions are
complemented with the specifications stated by the Federal Council of Culture and Education.
The system of education of Argentine recognizes a distinction between common education and
special regimes.
Common Education
Initial Education
Includes two types of institutions: a) early childhood education b) kindergarten
a) early childhood education: is destined to kinds under 3 years old, and its duties are to guarantee
the right of the child to receive care related to his/her basic needs and education, and to promote
a greater equity taking into account initial unevenness.
b) Kindergarten: it is intended for children of three to five years old, being obligatory the last year
of schooling. Its duties are to deepen educational success obtained among the family context,
develop the competences proper to the level and to endeavour the articulation with the Basic
Common Education.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 17
Their objectives are to promote the structuring of thought, imagination and communication; to
favour maturation of children; to stimulate habits of social integration, to fortify the bonds
between the school and the family; and to prevent and care of physical, psychic and social
inequalities. The authorization and supervision of the buildings are in charge of the jurisdictional
authorities. The jurisdictional authorities have under their scope of responsibilities those related
to the supervision of the activities destined to children to up to 3 years old.
Basic Common Education:
It is obligatory and of nine years in length. Children start this level at six years old. A pedagogical
unit must be understood as integral and is organized in cycles. The Federal Council of Culture
and Education defined the existence of three cycles for the Basic Common Education, of three
years each one: First Cycle (for children of 6 to 8 years old), Second Cycle (for children of 9 to 11
years old), and Third Cycle (for children of 12 to 14 years old). The ages for each cycle are
mentioned only as a hint.
Their objectives are to provide a common basic education to all the children and teenagers.
Among its objectives are: to favour the individual and social development; integrates positive
attitudes towards work environments as a pedagogical methodology; to acquire habits of hygiene
and health care, to stimulate the knowledge and the critical appreciation of traditions and cultural
heritage, among others.
Polimodal
It should take a minimum of three years in length and follows the fulfilment of the Common
Basic Education. Some of the objectives are: to prepare students to the exert of their rights and
citizen responsibilities, to deepen theoretical knowledge of a set subjects clustered according to
the following topics: humanities, social, scientific and technical; to develop instrumental skills
and apprenticeship related to the working environment; to favour intellectual autonomy;
propitiate sports practice. In addition, it has to familiarize students towards higher education. The
Polimodal Education contemplates five modalities:
�� Natural Science
�� Economy and Management
�� Humanities and Social Science
�� Production of Goods and Services
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 18
�� Communication, Arts and Design
Each modality must ensure a minimum of common competences required to participate actively,
reflexively and critically in the different contexts of social and productive life. Institutions can
offer one or more modalities.
The Polimodal diploma has its own value and is equivalent in international terms to the
accreditation of a formal education of second level. It enables the enrolment to any career of
higher education level.
Articulation with the Techno – professional Tracks: the Federal Council of Culture and Education
establishes that the Polimodal Education can be articulated with the Techno – professional
tracks. The techno – professional tracks should offer an initial professional improvement that
favours the performance in specific areas. The techno – professional tracks are defined as an
offering articulated with Polimodal Education that set out to develop professional competences
that assures adequate fulfilment within occupational areas for which, according to its
complexities, demand specific technological education of professional profile.
It’s a necessary condition for a student that wants to enrol in a Techno – professional Track to
have completed the obligatory schooling. The offering of Techno – professional Tracks is
structured taking into account explicit professional profiles elaborated through mechanisms of
consultation organized by the Ministry of Education and must count with active participation of
agents of production and educational community. The Federal Council of Culture and Education
also set the criteria for professional profiles and competences planning. Furthermore, it also
established guidelines about teaching work units (carga horaria) for those formative tracks (see
Chapter 3).
Passing the examination of each module or group of modules gives rise to independent
certifications. The certifications thus obtained conform a “portfolio of competences” which can
be enlarge and enrich through the rest of the life. The fulfilment of every module of a Techno –
professional track provides a degree that certifies technical knowledge pertinent to the particular
track.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 19
Special regimes
They are intended to attain necessities that couldn’t be satisfied by the basic structure of the
system and that demand specific offerings based on the necessities of the student or the
environment. It establishes the following modalities: special, adults and artistic.
Special Education:
The basic criteria defined for its organization are:
�� Special education must articulate itself with schooling services.
�� The service should be carried out in special schools or centres when other strategies are
considered to be insufficient, or when the students have complex educational needs that
cannot be hold in ordinary contexts, although with the corresponding support.
�� The educational action is organized considering the common curricular design as a parameter,
and solving student’s needs in order for them to access and advance within it.
�� It must grant personalized education.
�� It must include areas of education oriented towards: community participation; uses of spare
time; linkage with adulthood; exert personal autonomy and labour training.
�� The transformation of the management of the institutions based on criteria of flexibility and
interdisciplinary, the institutional and ample classroom project planning, balanced, diverse
and the promotion of team work among teachers.
�� Educational services of this special regime are divided in:
a) Educational services of support for the institutions of common education and for the community:
offer specific support for caring and evaluating students with special educational
needs, whether transitory or permanent, within the scope of common education,
for all the levels and institutions
b) Educational services for people with special educational needs: Are divided in:
b.1. Services of attention and early education: will be in charge of preventing, early
detection and the attention of the children with high psychological and/or
biological and/or social risk, from his birth to his incorporation to the Initial
Education.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 20
b.2. Special Schools: will offer education to the students with special needs that
require services that couldn’t be given by Common Education and services of
support of the ordinary institutions and of the community.
b.3. Services of professional training: will be in charge of the evaluation, orientation,
adaptation and professional training of the students with special needs that
couldn’t enrol in the ordinary institutions.
b.4. Life-long education: Special education will tend to facilitate the support and
required services in order to give people with special educational necessities the
opportunity to continue developing processes through their lives.
Artistic Education:
The Artistic education was deeply transformed by the new normative frame. Its duties are: to
provide training to the professionals of arts and to teachers of different specialities, in articulation
with the Polimodal; to guarantee to the students the possibilities of continuing higher education
and tend to develop values and strengthening national identity taking into account local, regional
and provincial idiosyncrasies and to the integration with America and the world. It must offer
orientation towards diverse working fields, reinforcing the competences that drive to a flexible
adjustment to the changes and thus take advantages of them.
The structuring is ordinary in the sense that it proposes for all the institutions of art, an offering
in two levels, which organizes its specialties, identifiable for their features and scope. It is also
flexible because it is broad and diverse and so it facilitates its adequacy to each specialty and to
the interests of each province or institution. It is composed of two levels
Artistic – professional Track or Basic: its organization and proper age of enrolment will be
determined by each jurisdiction and / or institutions according to the necessities for each
specialty, with working units defined for the level. This level will articulate with the
Common Basic Education, the Polimodal (in each case letting the accreditation of
curricular content) and the University (taking into account the possibility of agreements
that allows further studies in that level)
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 21
Higher Education: comprised two alternatives, Teacher development and Higher Technical
Education.
Young and Adult Education
Young and Adult Education is conceived as life-long learning according to the following
principles and general criteria:
�� The right of all the people to an education of quality and in tune with the changes of contemporary world. The
National State and the jurisdictions must guarantee this right by means of the creation and
the support of the necessary services, with the same quality level as to the others educational
services of the system, as well as to promote intersectional actions.
�� The necessity of learning through all stages of life.
�� The autonomy of the individuals in the organization and management of his / her learning
projects. The addressees are people of 16 years or more, who haven’t finished Common Basic Education and
of 18 years or more, whichever were his / her level of schooling. Young and Adult education must offer
curricular and institutional alternatives that allows the students to organized their own
developing schedules, taking into account their motivations, capacities, background
knowledge and future plans.
�� The identity, complementariness, and articulation of the general education and of the techno – professional
development. The students will be able to organize their own itineraries through the services of
the resources of the general education, of professional technical orientation, and through
services of both types, or through an integrated educational service that guarantees both.)
The curricular and institutional organization is based on criteria of openness and flexibility, with
emphasis in a holistic development, and combined with offerings of different length.
Higher Education
The Higher Education is constituted by institutions of non-university of higher education, being
they of development of teachers, humanistic, social, techno – professional or artistic orientation;
and by institutions of University Education, that includes national and provincial universities and
private universities recognized by the National State. This level also includes State’s institutions
and recognized private institutions. All the above mentioned integrates the National System of
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 22
the University level. The enrolment for this level can be pursued after the fulfilment of Polimodal
Education and offers professional training and undergraduate studies. The universities and other
institutions involved define lengths depending on the subject and objective of study.
It corresponds to the provinces and to the City of Buenos Aires the management and
organization of the non – university higher education within their scope of competency. The
universities are granted with academic autonomy and autarky of management and economic and
financing independency, all this according to the legislative frame in force.
The Higher Education is conformed by a non – university undergraduate professional stage that
will be given at a) Institutions of Development of Teachers or equivalent and b) Institutions of
Technical training that will grant professional degrees and will be articulated with the universities.
The other stage is a university undergraduate academic and professional stage that will be fulfilled
at universities. For this stage it is defined, among others, the objective of training and developing
technicians and professionals, to develop the knowledge at the highest level, to spread scientific-
technological knowledge, to stimulate intellectual reflection on matters of national, Latin-
American and world problems, and to exert consultancy for national and private institutions.
Teacher Training
The Federal Council of Culture and Education established the basis of the system of teacher
training. The academic organization distinguishes, on one hand teacher training of Initial level
and of the first and second cycles of Basic General Education. On the other hand, there exists
teacher training of the third level of the GBE and Polimodal. The first mentioned could be
developed within non- universities Higher Education institutions and within universities. It could
offer a multidisciplinary training that guarantees quality of teaching in subjects such as: maths,
language, social science, natural science, ethics and citizenry and technological knowledge, artistic
education and sports. The second orientation of teaching development corresponds to the third
level of Basic General Education and Polimodal and must offer a disciplinal training that assures
quality of teaching of the Common Basic Contents related to this level and for the Oriented
Basic Contents of the Polimodal level. In every case, they should be done in Universities or in
non- universities institutions that subscribed agreements with universities or are specifically
accredited as capable of engage in those tasks. The Federal Council of Culture and Education
defined 4 instances of continuing teacher development:
a) undergraduate training
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 23
b) improvement during teaching activities;
c) training of teachers for new professional abilities;
d) pedagogical training for non-teachers.
Postgraduate Education:
Universities are responsible of this level. Other institutions capable of bringing postgraduate
studies are: academic, scientific and renowned professional institutions. Those that want to access
to this level must have completed undergraduate studies corresponding to the Higher Education
level.
Non- formal Education:
The Federal Law of Education establishes the actions that the official authorities must fulfil in
relation to non-formal education:
· promote services offerings;
· favor teacher training actions;
· submit to the community information on the offerings of the area.
· promote agreements with intermediate associations in order to jointly develop programs;
· facilitates the organization of cultural associations intended for young people;
· facilitates the use of buildings and of resources of the public institutions and of the
buildings of the formal educational system;
· protect the consumers rights on matters of non-formal educational services.
Policies, methods and instruments of evaluation
The evaluation of the system
The Federal Law of Education created the National System of Quality of Evaluation with the
purpose of giving to the National Ministry of Education a tool that guarantees the equity of
knowledge distribution along the country. The system carries out the following activities:
�� measuring year by year the knowledge acquired by the students in every level of the system;
�� monitoring the adequacy of the contents of the education according to the demands of the
society and of the requirements of the academic and working environment;
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 24
�� monitoring the quality of the teacher training.
Between 1993 and 2000 eight national inquiries in order to measure the success reached by the
students that were ending Primary and Secondary levels have taken placed. Those inquiries gave
information about aspects of success in education for all the country. Taking into account that
information, methodological recommendations were given to the teachers, in order to improve
the work in classrooms, to intensify and to orient tasks of teacher training and to assist to the
provinces with major difficulties.
The evaluation of the institutions
There are not specific systems of evaluations that can be provided homogenously for all the
levels in order to define the promotion. Teachers elaborate the criteria and instruments used in
accordance to the pedagogical projects developed in each institution. However, the Federal
Council of Culture and Education accepted federal patterns for: a) accreditation and promotion
within Basic General Education and Polimodal and b) accreditation for the Techno –
professional tracks and Artistic – professional Tracks.
With the purpose of acquaint compatibility all through the country and of international
comparability, a federal parameter was established, on a scale of 1 to 10. This scale is intended to
measure the qualification of the different curricular spaces. Each category of the scale represents,
progressively, different levels of success. The definition of the federal parameter does not impede
the use of scales of qualification based on categories of conceptual denomination. In every case,
those scales can be compared with the federal parameter.
The decisions about allowing students to go into the next level or to advance into another stage
within the same level are taken on the base of the accreditation of the curricular spaces. It also
has to be taken into account the fulfilment of the requisite of a minimum number of days
necessary to attend to class. That quantity of days is established by each province and by the City
of Buenos Aires, respectively. Patterns of going ahead in the case of students of Basic General
Education and Polimodal must take into account the following criteria:
�� a decision of not allowing a student to move to the next stage or level must be defined in
accordance with the information gather among the team of teachers responsible of the
process of learning and only when all the complementary actions have already been
implemented.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 25
�� for the first and second level, the decision of allowing a student to go ahead to the next
stage or level is taken through a holistic approach according to the core of knowledge
reached for that level and when that knowledge is sufficient enough to guarantee an
accurate the process of schooling
�� for the Third level of the Basic General Education and Polimodal, students who have
pending to accreditation more than two curricular spaces cannot be allow to go ahead
into the next stage or level. For those students, the institutions, according to their
possibilities and specific normative determined by the provinces and the City of Buenos
Aires, respectively, can offer different alternatives such as:
a) enrol in credited and non-credited spaces;
b) enrol only into the spaces that haven’t been accredited
c) into the spaces that haven’t been accredited and the rest of the school day, the student
must deal with a special working project assigned by the institution.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 26
1.2. MAIN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE SUCCESSES OF THE LAST 10 YEARS
Socio-economic structure of Argentine
The territory of the Argentine Republic has a total surface of 3.7 million square kilometres. The
Pampa plain occupies a third of the territory and is the main farming and industrial region of the
country, concentrating near 70% of the population, consisting of 36.100.00 inhabitants,
approximately. The urban population represents the 89,3% and the rural population takes up to
10,7% of the total.
The percentage of urban population and the growth rate of that population (1,79‰) places
Argentina closer to the realities of a developed country than to that of the developing countries.
However, while in the City of Buenos Aires and the Province of Buenos Aires – both being part
of the Metropolitan area – birth rates are 13,1‰ and 17,1‰ respectively. The province of
Misiones (Northeast region) and Salta (Northwest region) presents rates of 27,3‰ and 24,7‰
respectively1.. The infant mortality rate shows data that support this information: the City of
Buenos Aires ((13,0 ‰) and Tierra del Fuego (11,9 ‰) in the Patagonia, presents opposite
realities to the other 2 regions of the Norwest region; Chaco (31,8 ‰) and Formosa (26,9 ‰)2.
From year 1991, the Argentine Republic developed a pattern that promoted the disarticulation of
the previous mechanisms of regulation of State affairs, not only inwards but outwards as well.
The economic stability united to the process of privatization of state enterprises and the
reduction of the fiscal deficit, allowed a significant economic growth during the first half of the
decade.
The structural reform of the external sector was based on an opening of the economy towards
international markets and was destined to stimulate competition and aimed to obtain an
increasing convergence of national and international prices. This allowed increasing importation
and exportations of goods. Argentine has a predominant tendency to import products with high
added value, (capital assets, pieces and accessories of capital) and to export products of low
added value (primary products and manufactures of farming). This results in a lower and limited
qualified development of local productivity.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 27
Figure Nº 1. Evolution of Gross Domestic Product. Years 1990/1998, base 1990=100
Source: National Institution of Statistics and Census
The Gross Domestic Product during 1998 was higher to the value corresponding to 1990, which
means a 56,1%. Nevertheless, this growth was accompanied by an increase of the differences in
the distribution of income. The distance among the 10% of higher incomes and the 10% of
lower incomes arose from 8 times (in 1975) to 22 (in 1998). In 1991 a 16% of the households
were in conditions of unsatisfied basic needs3. In 1999 this percentage grew to 23,4% with clear
regional differences.
Table Nº1. Argentine. October 1999. Percentage of inhabitants with unsatisfied basic
needs in the major urban regions
Regions UBN
Metropolitan 23,5
Pampa 21,2
Northwest 27,3
Cuyo 18,3
Northeast 34,1
Patagonia 16,5
TOTAL 23,4
Source: UNICEF on data of –NISC
100
110
120
130
140
150
160
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
PIB
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 28
At the beginnings of the ´80 the rate of unemployment was an insignificant issue. Almost ten
years after, it turns out to be the main problem. The impact of the unemployment on different
social sectors is diverse but the rate is higher among those that only have had access to the lowest
levels of the educational system.
In short, during the last decade Argentine went through a distinctive process in which an
important growth of the economy was parallel to an increase of the differences in the income per
capita.
MAIN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE SUCCESS
The offering of educational services
The argentine system of education early reached high rates of schooling in Primary level, low
indices of illiteracy and an important development of Secondary and Higher Education.
However, historical and regional differences exist, as much in the access as in the yield of the
system.
In 1999 the formal educational system had an enrolment of 9.950.947 in the 40.770 schools, with
644.811 teachers in duty. The 77% of the students, the 78% of the buildings and the 75% of the
teachers belong to the public sector. This sector has traditionally been prevailing for all the
system’s level and the main responsible of it expansion, primarily on the fulfilment of the
obligatory issue. In the last 10 years, the private sector has expanded onto the non-university
higher education.
Table Nº2. Argentine. 1994-1999. Students of common education according to sector of
management of the school they assist to. Absolute and percentage values
Initial Primary Secondary SNU Total Abs.
E %
P %
Total Abs.
E %
P %
Total Abs.
E %
P %
Total Abs.
E %
P %
1994 998.629 68 32 4.979.190 79 21 2.144.372 68 32 298.286 69 31 1996 1.128.172 70 30 5.089.112 79 21 2.485.646 71 29 370.261 65 35 1997 1.145.919 71 29 5.153.256 79 21 2.463.608 72 28 356.585 65 35 1998 1.167.943 71 29 5.262.066 79 21 2.539.749 72 28 384.160 61 39 1999 1.180.733 72 28 5.282.657 79 21 2.607.364 73 27 391.010 60 40
Source: Ministry of Culture and Education. Federal Network of Educational Information. National Census of Teachers and schools buildings 1994. Annual Surveys 1996, 1997, 1998 y 1999.
In 1998, 1664 educational units conformed part of the system of non-university higher education.
Of these, 804 of them were public institutions and 860 were private. In this segment of the
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 29
system 805 institutions were intended to teacher training, 485 of them offered techno-
professional training and 315 covered both types of education.
The University Higher education in Argentine has historically been well considered due to its
level. In the last years, there has been a process of expansion of the offering, with a higher
regional coverage. This was due to the creation of new institutions. In 1989 and 1998, 9 public
universities were created, 21 private universities started their enrolment and 3 public universities
institutions and 4 from the private sector were opened. All this gives a total amount for the
public sector of 36 universities and 5 institutions and for the private sector of 40 universities and
6 institutions. Within the context of higher education, the relative importance of the university
system over the non-university is remarkable. Near 1998, the 75% of the students of the level
were enrolled in universities institutions and the 25% were enrolled in non-universities
institutions.
Access to the levels of the educational system
The evolution of the indices of schooling for the populations allows confirming that, in the last
decade:
�� There exist a fair access according to gender in the enrolment for schooling
�� There still persists the inequity to the access among different regions of the country
�� There exist significant differences in the schooling access among different groups and social
sectors
The percentage of illiteracy among the population of 14 years old arose 3,9% in 1991. This figure
is relatively close to that of the developed countries (1,8% in 1990). The distribution of this
percentage is not homogeneous: the difference between urban areas (2,9%) and rural areas
(12,1%) is very significant. In addition there is a significant difference among regions.
Table Nº3. Argentine. 1991. Conditions of illiterates of the population of 15 years old and more, by region. In percentage
Region Illiteracy
Metropolitan 2,2
Northwest 6,9
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 30
Pampa 4,4
Northeast 10,5 Patagonia 5,2
Cuyo 4,9 Source: NISC
According to the Census of 1991, a fifth part of the population of 20 to 64 years of age never
assisted to school o hasn’t finished primary school. Comparing the segment of age of 20 to 24
years old and those from 60 to 64 years old, verifies that:
a) among the youngest group an increasing of the percentages of accessing school to the
different levels can be verify: for primary school augment from 94% to 98%, for
Secondary school augments fro 23% to 63% and for higher education augments from 7%
to 26%.
b) those who never assisted to school represents 1% of the group of 20 to 24 years old,
while in the group of 60 to 64 years old represent a 6%, the percentage of illiteracy that
goes from 2% for the first group to 6% for the second.
In Initial Education, according to the census of 1991, the percentage of children of five years old
assisting to school ascended to 84%, 73% corresponding to Initial level and 11% to the Primary
level. Between that date and 1998 the growth of the enrolment reaches the 20%. This growth
results in a generalized covering for that group of age. The estimated growth of the population
indicates that the gross rate of schooling at 5 years old for the whole country would be between
the 96,1% and the 98,3%. This projection enclosed provincial and intra-provincial disparities. A
group of jurisdictions has an average rate of schooling of 62% while other group has an average
rate of 99,2% 4.. The rate of school assisting of the last year of kindergarten in 1998 was 88%
(urban areas), 82% for the poorest quintile and 99,6% for the richest quintile.
In short, the 90´s shows a significant advance in the total schooling for children of 5 years. In
some provinces and localities the fulfillment of this objective still requires efforts to reach the
goal.
In 1991, the access to Primary schooling was practically fulfilled. The rates of schooling for the
level have been growing. In addition, an important expansion of the Secondary Education took
place although there are still significant regional differences.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 31
Table Nº4: Argentine. Years 1991-1998. Neat and gross rates of schooling of Primary and Secondary level in Argentine according to the selected years
Primary Level Secondary Level Year
Neat Rate Gross Rate Neat Rate Gross Rate 1991 (1) 95.1 107.8 59.2 73.6 1996 (2) 99.4 112.1 68.9 79.5 1997 (2) 99.3 113.8 72.0 86.4
(1) Actual rates calculated on the base of the data of the National demographic and households Census of 1991. (2) Estimated rates calculated on the basis of the demographic data of 1991 and adjusted according to the growth used for the projections of the National Institution of Statistics and Census for the 1990-2000 period, and actual enrolment taken from annual surveys done by REDFIED – Ministry of Culture and education during 1996 and 1997.
The differences in rates of schooling for those sectors among the 20% lower in the scale of
income per capita and of those that are in the 20% highest in the scale, reaches the 30,9%.
Table Nº 5: Argentine. May 1999.T Neat rate of schooling in the Secondary Education, measuring family income
Income Level 20% lowest 20% highest Difference Total
Metropolitan 62,9 92,9 30,0 75,1
Pampa 55,3 91,5 36,2 68,1
Northwest 56,8 92,5 35,7 69,6
Cuyo 60,5 83,7 23,2 69,5
Northeast 58,4 91,9 33,5 68,3
Patagonia 65,3 84,7 19,4 74,8
TOTAL 58,8 89,7 30,9 70,3
SOURCE: Ministry of Culture and Education, Research Unit, data based on EPH -NISC source
In the Higher Education there was also an increase of enrolment. Likewise, strong disparities can
be verified among provinces and social groups.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 32
Table Nº 6 Argentine. October 1999. Neat rate of schooling in Higher Education and in
Universities according to regions, measure in income per capita.
Income level per capita Total Region
20 % lowest 60 % middle 20 % highest Metropolitan 5.8 25.7 55.1 25.1 Pampa 9.7 33.7 48.9 29.8 Northwest 13.1 23.4 49.8 23.4 Cuyo 7.7 22.1 42.9 21.0 Northeast 14.0 28.4 53.4 28.3 Patagonia 8.6 19.5 32.0 17.9 Total 10.2 26.3 48.6 25.0
* from 18 to 25 years old Source: Ministry of Culture and Education, Research Unit, data based on EPH
Withholding, repetition and desertion
The capacity of the system of education to retain and to promote the students who initiate their
schooling in each one of the levels is a key factor in relation to the equity. In Argentine, the
problem of grade repetition and abandonment has different values depending on the educational
levels.
Briefly, the efforts towards the extension of the obligatory schooling during the last ten years
impeded the fulfilment of actions tended to considerably reduced the percentages of grade
repetition
In Primary School, the construction of a theoretical cohort on the basis of available data for the
period 1997-1998 signals that for each 1000 students that start at that level, a bit less that 50%
(574) would success at ideal length. Approximately 20% would success a year after the
appropriate length and the other 5% would achieve the degree with a delay of 2 years or more.
In the first four years of schooling for this level, the system shows a strong tendency towards
withholding students although many of them would repeat the grade. On the contrary, in the
seventh grade there are more students that drop out than those that repeat. In whole,
approximately 83% of the students that starts the level finish it although with different length.
This data allows an analysis of the patterns of internal efficiency for each one of the educational
systems of the provinces. The regional differences appears not only in the quantity of students
that finish their studies for each one of the cohorts, but also in the tracks that the students have
gone through: jurisdictions that success in promoting a similar amount of students do so in quite
differentiated length due to the weight of the percentages of grade repetition. Although the
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 33
efforts carried out for bettering withholding and grade repetition indices, the differences among
jurisdictions are, in some cases, of alarming magnitude. While some provinces have percentages
of students that get their degrees closer to or higher than 90%, others merely get closer to 70%
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 34
Table Nº7. Argentine. Years 1997-1998. Promoted and abandoners according to
theoretical cohorts of Primary Education for jurisdiction. In percentage.
Region Province In ideal length
(7 años)
With a delay of up to 3 years
Total of students that get
their degree
Abandoners
Buenos Aires 70 17 87 13 Metropolitan City of Bs. Aires 76 13 89 11 Catamarca 53 25 79 21 Jujuy 52 31 83 17 La Rioja 51 31 82 18 Salta 54 27 81 19 Santiago del Estero 29 31 60 40
Northwest
Tucumán 59 25 84 16 Córdoba 49 31 80 20 Entre Ríos 52 24 76 24 La Pampa 60 21 80 20
Pampa
Santa Fe 62 26 88 12 Corrientes 47 21 68 33 Chaco 37 36 73 27 Formosa 33 37 70 30
Northeast
Misiones 29 34 63 37 Chubut 58 32 90 10 Neuquén 51 30 80 20 Río Negro 44 39 83 17 Santa Cruz 62 30 92 8
Patagonia
Tierra del Fuego 80 17 97 3 Mendoza 69 25 94 6 San Juan 50 27 77 23
Cuyo
San Luis 56 22 78 22 Source: Federal Network of Educational Information
Similarly, the Secondary education presents difficulties on rendering issues. The theoretical
cohort for this level shows that on 1000 students that initiate their studies only 537 of them will
finish them, and only 356 of them would do it in the ideal length. More than 10% of the students
of first grade repeat it and a similar percentage drop out the system. A similar situation happens
in the second year of study of this level, but it decreases in the last two years of the level.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 35
While a group of provinces surpasses the 60% of students that fulfill their studies, another group
doesn’t reach the 45%. On the other hand, the fulfillment of the level in ideal length is even
lower as a consequence of the incidence of grade repetitions. In some provinces that reach
relatively high rates of level fulfillment, less than 40% of the students that initiates the Secondary
school fulfill their studies within ideal length. That is to say, they display a certain capacity to
withhold the students within the system but this means an important investment in terms of
years of studies for each of the students that successfully finish the level.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 36
Table Nº8. Argentine 1997-1998. Promoted and y abandoners according to theoretical
cohorts of the secondary level measured by jurisdiction.
Province In ideal lenght (5
years)
With a year of delay
With two years of
delay
With three years of
delay
Total amount of succeeding students
Abandones
Buenos Aires 37 12 2 0 52 48
City of Buenos Aires 44 18 4 1 67 33
Catamarca 36 13 3 1 53 48
Jujuy 32 24 11 4 71 29
La Rioja 32 16 5 1 54 46
Salta 24 13 4 1 42 58
Santiago del Estero 25 9 2 0 36 64
Tucumán 35 10 2 0 48 53
Córdoba 40 17 5 1 62 38
Entre Ríos 34 15 4 1 54 46
La Pampa 39 13 3 1 56 44
Santa Fe 35 13 3 0 51 49
Corrientes 42 13 2 0 57 43
Chaco 27 14 5 1 47 54
Formosa 24 12 4 1 42 58
Misiones 29 15 5 1 50 50
Chubut 27 9 2 0 38 62
Neuquén 21 13 5 2 41 59
Río Negro 24 16 7 2 49 51
Santa Cruz 34 18 6 2 60 40
Tierra del Fuego 26 10 2 0 42 58
Mendoza 36 17 5 1 59 41
San Juan 35 13 3 1 51 49
San Luis 34 14 4 1 52 48
Source: Federal Network of Educational Information
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 37
The probability for a student of a household with high incomes to perform his / her school track
without difficulties is remarkably superior to that of a students belonging to the lowest income
social group. The grade repetition in the Primary level is five times higher for the poorest
students. This percentage is duplicated in the Secondary level, in which only the 24,4% of the
poorest students completes their studies in this level. This measurement was compared to the
76% of the quintile of higher incomes.
Table Nº9. Indices of faults and problems of rendering in the Primary and Secondary school according to levels of income per capita per household. Whole country. In
percentages.5 Population of 6 to 24 that assists with delay
Total 20% poorest
20% richest
Difference
In Primary school with delay 21,0 30,5 9,5 21,0 In Secondary school with delay 41,7 50,6 30,6 20,0 Población que asiste a la escuela Of 6 to 24 that repeated one or more grades of primary school
14,4 22,7 4,5 18,2
Of 15 to 24 that repeated one or more grades of Secondary school
35,0 38,3 27,3 11,0
Population of 6 to 24 currently studying, or already finished, or dropped out the Primary school
Accessed Primary school after the stipulated age
6,0 7,3 5,9 1,4
Repeated any grade 13,6 21,3 4,0 17,3 Population of 15 to 24 currently studying or already finished or dropped out the Secondary school
Accessed Secondary school after the stipulated age
15,2 26,4 8,8 17,6
Repeated any grade 27,9 34,5 18,6 15,9Abandoned Secondary school without finishing it
20,2 28,9 6,6 22,3
Population of 18 to 24 that fulfilled secondary school
45,7 24,4 76,0 -51,6
Source: Survey of Social Development. August 1997. System of Information, Monitoring and Evaluation of Social Programs (SIEMPRO)
Equipment and Infrastructure
The material conditions, such as infrastructure and equipment, are an important component for
the development of the processes of teaching and learning in the schools. In the last years great
efforts have been made in order to eradicate the precarious buildings, to augment the quantity of
buildings and to improve the equipment in the schools. This means that libraries and classrooms
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 38
of informatics were opened in the schools that haven’t had them. The differences among the
provinces and regions are reflected upon those issues too. The Northwest and the Northeast
regions are clearly below the Patagonia and Metropolitan regions, with a distance of almost 27
points according to the index of Building Quality from the best-positioned jurisdiction (City of
Buenos Aires – Metropolitan Region) and from that with less value (Santiago del Estero –
Northwest Region). In general, the buildings in that are in bad conditions are exclusively destined
to Primary school and are small in size. Anyway, it is possible that, since 1994 (year for which
date is systematized) the improvement planning of infrastructure might have shorten this gap6.
Table Nº10. Argentine. Año1994. Index of quality of school buildings measured by jurisdiction
Region Jurisdiction Score City of Buenos Aires 79,8 Metropolitan Buenos Aires 71,7 Catamarca 60,6 Jujuy 61,5 La Rioja 62,2 Salta 60,5 Santiago del Estero 53,2
Northwest
Tucumán 65,4 Córdoba 70,6 Entre Ríos 65 La Pampa 72,7
Pampa
Santa Fe 69,5 Misiones 62 Corrientes 59,2 Formosa 56
Nordeast
Chaco 54,7 Tierra del Fuego 77,1 Santa Cruz 75,3 Chubut 73,6 Río Negro 72,2
Patagonia
Neuquén 70,6 San Juan 71,1 Mendoza 71,7
Cuyo
San Luis 66,1 Total 67,7
Source: National Census of Teachers and School Buildings. 1994. General Secretary of the Federal Network of Educational Information.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 39
The library is considered as the pedagogical space most frequently found in educational
institutions (40,7%), followed by labs (21,7%) and classroom of music (17,9%). The regional
differences in terms of presence of those spaces are important.
Table Nº11. Argentine. 1998. School Buildings in which common education is carried out and possess pedagogical spaces differentiated according to jurisdictions
Jurisdiction Total amount of buildings *
Library Classrooms of multiple
artistic activities
Classroom of music
Lab
Metropolitan 12.328 40,7 11,4 17,9 21,7Northwest 4666 18,8 5,7 7,2 8,6Pampa 7.781 29,4 10,9 11,8 14,1Northeast 4.409 22,9 3,4 3,9 7,2Patagonia 1649 40,8 17,0 17,1 21,5Cuyo 1.925 27,8 11,1 20,3 15,4Total 32.758 31,7 9,6 13,1 15,7* Includes main buildings and / or annexed buildings Source: Research Unit of the National Ministry of Education with data from CENIE 98. National Program for the Promotion of Educational Quality. Federal Network of Educational Information.
The quantity of institutions that has computers has been growing in the last year, it started with a
26% in 1994 and arose to 35,5% in 1998. Likewise, in this respect, there are differences when the
regions are compared. In this regard, the differences between the state sector and the private
sector augment the disparity. The percentage of computers within the private educational
institutions doubles the figures of the percentage of the state sector.
TableNº12. Argentine. 1998. School buildings of common education that possess computers according to region. In percentages.
Region Sector
State Private Total
Metropolitan 41,1 63,0 48,6 Northwest 11,5 57,7 16,2 Pampa 30,8 59,7 36,4 Northeaste 10,5 43,9 13,5 Patagonia 28,9 47,2 32,0 Cuyo 34,7 58,4 38,9 Total 28,4 60,2 35,5
Source: Research Unit of the National Ministry of Education, on the base of data gathers through the
National Census of Educational infrastructure. 1998
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 40
Quality of Education
Since 1993, the National Ministry of Education has been developing annual campaigns of quality
evaluation that measures the rendering of the students according to their responses to different
tests of knowledge7. These evaluations are produced within the context of the curricular reform
that actualized and renewed the contents. These evaluations are built on the base of the
knowledge that is gradually taught in the classrooms.
The tests evaluate the basic knowledge that is taught through out each cycle, in the case of last
years of the secondary school, this knowledge is common to all the modalities. In this part of the
document the results for the 9* year of the Basic General Education is presented. The 9* years is
the last and obligatory year for this level, and after fulfillment the student gets his /her degree.
The chart N*2, corresponding to the last year of obligatory education, shows that it is necessary
to improve significantly the levels of learning of the students, since the total amount of correct
answers is lower than the 60% for both areas.
Tables 13 and 14 remark the differences in the results between the private and the public sector.
Between them there exist differences of 12 points while the difference between the provinces is
closer to 22 points for Language and for Math. The provinces with lower results correspond to
those in which the socio – economic and educational indices are lower too (Northwest and
Northeast)
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 41
Chart Nº2. Average rendering for the 9* grade of General Basic Education (equivalent to
2* year of Secondary school) measure by area
Language
Math
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 42
Table Nº 13. Average rendering for area and sector measured in percentages of correct answers
9º year (2º year of Secondary) Area State Private
Language 55,99 70,68 Math 54,70 67,59
Source: National Campaign of Evaluation 1999
Table Nº 14. Argentine. 1999. Mean values of rendering in Language and Math of 9* year of General Basic Education by jurisdiction
Region Jurisdiction Language Math
City of Buenos Aires 68.01 67.85 Metropolitan Great Buenos Aires 60.84 58.10 Catamarca 46.10 47.09 Jujuy 49.52 48.46 La Rioja 46.26 45.34 Salta 52.41 50.38 Santiago del Estero 48.31 45.50
Northwest
Tucumán 54.30 52.40 Buenos Aires 60.40 60.53 Córdoba 64.40 61.77 Entre Ríos 60.62 58.79 La Pampa 62.31 59.42
Pampa
Santa Fe 62.66 61.04 Chaco 50.32 47.36 Formosa 51.11 48.20
Northeaste
Misiones 55.05 52.42 Chubut 58.84 53.00 Neuquén 56.60 59.83 Río Negro 61.99 62.46
Patagonia
Santa Cruz 53.05 50.75 Mendoza 62.61 61.17 San Juan 49.39 46.63
Cuyo
San Luis 54.43 50.99 * The Provinces of Corrientes and Tierra del Fuego were not evaluated Source: National Campaign of Evaluation 1999
For the last years of the Secondary school the kind of results follows the same patterns. Chart N*
20 shows the differences between the public and the private sector, which is higher that the 10
points. The Technical school, which is almost entirely public, has better results than the Bachiller
and the Comercial for the same sector, especially in Math.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 43
Table Nº 15. Average rendering by area and by modality. On the whole country and for the 5* / 6* year of the Secondary School
Bachiller + Comercial estatal
Bachiller + Comercial privado
Técnico
Language 61,53 72,77 63,19 Math 64,09 74,09 71,09
Source: Results of the III National Campaing of Evaluation for the last year of Secondary School. 1999. Ministry of Education
Table Nº 16. Argentine. 1999. Mean values of rendering of Language and Math for 5* / 6* year of the Secondary school. By jurisdiction
Region Jurisdiction Language Math City of Buenos Aires 72.99 74.59 Metropolitan Great Buenos Aires 68.51 71.87 Catamarca 48.61 50.75 Jujuy 53.68 58.15 La Rioja 53.28 55.49 Salta 55.71 58.81 Santiago del Estero 53.67 54.08
Northwest
Tucumán 58.90 64.13 Buenos Aires 70.25 73.58 Córdoba 69.25 70.74 Entre Ríos 65.73 67.35 La Pampa 61.95 64.95
Pampa
Santa Fe 68.17 71.96 Chaco 53.81 53.73 Formosa 52.14 54.55
Northeaste
Misiones 55.59 57.82 Chubut 60.78 63.17 Neuquén 56.85 62.62 Río Negro 64.06 68.53 Santa Cruz 54.58 57.06
Patagonia
Tierra del Fuego 57.49 60.19 Mendoza 64.04 68.46 San Juan 55.11 59.44
Cuyo
San Luis 63.25 65.26 * The Province of Corrientes was not evaluated Source: Results of the III National Campaign of Evaluation for the last year of the Secondary school. 1999 Ministry of Education
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 44
The investment in education in the Argentine Republic
During the ´90 the investment in education increased sensitively as a result of the public policies
for the sector and the actions agreed between the national State and the provinces. An important
amount of national resources was destined to aspects linked to the educational transformation,
such as the development of the Common Basic Content, the development of teachers, the
continuing education of teachers, the design of the structure of the basic general education, and
the Polimodal education. In addition, goals linked to the evaluation, the cooperation and the
technical assistance for the concretion of the educational innovations and the institutional
fortifying were financed.
Chart Nº 3. Investment in education in 1993-99 in thousand of pesos
The investment in education has nowadays reached the 4,3% of the Gross Domestic Product.
This figure is reached through the growing of the budget of the national Ministry, which was
stabilized around the 0,8% of the Gross Domestic Product, as well as the budget of the
provinces. Although at the same time the enrolment for all the levels increased, between 1994
and 1999 an increased of the investment for each students was done in the majority of the
jurisdictions.
GASTO EDUCATIVO 1993-99 miles de pesos corrientes
9925
2747
12779
96269289
8241820779837294
255827722548222320651807
12335120241087710499
101079183
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
$
PROVINCIAS M INISTERIO NACIONAL TOTAL
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 45
Chart Nº 4. Investment in education as percentage of the Gross Domestic Product, Total
expenditure and social expenditure 1980-1999
The investment in education, measure as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product, increases
slightly and acquires importance as a percentage of the whole social investment. In spite of that,
the country nowadays has a fiscal debt that limits the possibilities of advancing in the growth of
the investment. This affects more profoundly to the provinces with major difficulties. Those
provinces unfolded in a context of high restrictions in the access and use of resources. The
investment for each student is lower in those provinces in which the educational urgency is
higher. Through this, can be appreciated the way in which is configured a heterogeneous scheme
of educational possibilities for the population of the different regions of the country, in which the
investment that the provinces can provide to the education scarcely revert the socioeconomic
differences.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 46
Chart 5. Index of Educational emergency8 and average of the provincial investment on
each student 1998
The compensating policies fulfilled during the ´90, although they implied increases in different
issues of the investment, don’t seem to constitute a device sufficiently powerful in order to
surpass the current situation. The two investment plans of major forcefulness carried out during
that decade – the Social Educational Plan and the Federal Agreement – exhibits amounts of
investment for each student that only in some occasions shows correspondence with the
educational necessities of the province. This means, they still not succeed in the compensation of
the provincial differences in order to allow the fulfillment of the goals proposed in the Federal
Law of education.
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Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 47
Chart Nº 6
A kind of synthesized
The process of reform of the last decade implied a sustained purpose of improving the quality
and the access of the population to new knowledge. Among other things, the context of
deepness of the social exclusion did not allow to surpass the historical, social and regional
heterogeneity of the main educational indices.
The increase of the rate of schooling in the different levels, in particular in the Secondary school
and in the Initial level, is without doubts an advanced in terms of equity. However, there still
persists ancient problems alike grade repetition and abandonment, especially within the
Secondary school. The Argentine Republic still offers to its children very diverse school
trajectories. The abandonment of the system and the grade repetition are problems that appear
with a great geographical bias, which coincides with the provinces that are in a weaker
economical situation and with the poorest social conditions. Their schools are those that have the
most difficult conditions for the development of the teaching tasks in terms of infrastructure and
equipment. The compensatory policies implemented constituted a very important step further to
solve those problems. However, only partially responds to the existing demands and needs.
INDICE DE URGENCIA EDUCATIVA E INVERSION POR ALUMNO(*) DEL PLAN SOCIAL(1993-99) Y EL PACTO FEDERAL (1995-99)
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Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 48
1.3. EXPERIENCES FROM THE PROCESS OF CHANGE AND REFORM OF THE EDUCATION
SYSTEMS (APPROACHES ADOPTED, SUCCESSFUL OR FAILED STRATEGIES, MAIN PROBLEMS)
Introduction
The 1990’s marked a point of inflection in the development of the Argentine education system.
The new legal bases for education supported a re-shaping of the way the education system was
governed, granting new responsibilities to the national and provincial States9.
The debates of the 1980’s on the new objectives education should meet with the return to
democracy had enabled the necessary consensus for transforming the system to be reached.
The changes establish mechanisms for improving quality and equity, as in the case of the
extension of compulsory education, encouragement of a corpus of up-to-date knowledge for
pupils at all levels throughout the country –expressed in common basic contents and new
curricular designs – and the institutionalization of evaluation and information systems enabling a
follow-up of the actions undertaken. Alongside these advances there persist old social and
educational problems, indicative of the need to review the chosen strategies and courses of
action.
The formulation of an educational development strategy for the 2001-2010 period is based on an
evaluation of the experiences from the process of change and reform of the preceding decade.
The new ways of governing the system: the relationship between the national
and provincial authorities
The process of transferring the system to the provinces brought a new distribution of
responsibilities between the national authorities and the provincial and City of Buenos Aires
authorities in terms of educational management and administration. Operational and financial
decentralization made the provinces responsible for delivering the resources for the direct
provision of educational services. The impact of this process on the provinces varied according
to each one’s capacity for pedagogical, technical and financial administration.
The Federal Education Law redefined the role of the national State, granting it the functions of
promoting the unity, equity and improved quality of the system. It also strengthened the role of
the Federal Education Council as a coordinating mechanism. With this scenario, the national
Ministry led the reform by designing and financing the different change mechanisms in the
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 49
various jurisdictions. This produced a marked lack of symmetry in decision making between a
strong national State –based on the centralized control of resources– and the provincial states, a
situation expressed in the Federal Education Council’s agreements, which were difficult to
comply with in the bulk of the provinces.
The transformation approach adopted
Regardless of the situation in the provincial educational systems, their traditions and capacities,
the agreements reached in the Federal Education Council had two basic features: a swift pace of
application and a simultaneous strategy of change. The integral nature of the change meant at the
same time modifying the new structure of cycles and levels, the drawing up and implementation
of new curricular designs, carrying out compensatory programs, the development of training
courses to update teachers, infrastructure improvement and extension, and innovation in
institutional administration, among other things.
The strategy dealt with historically neglected problems and brought financial and technical
resources to the provinces, as has already been pointed out. However, the swift pace of these
changes, in the context of the provinces’ heterogeneous administrative ability, brought
consequences that upset the normal working of the system and detracted from the effectiveness
of the proposals. This is the case with the lack of synchronization of certain actions, (for
example, teacher training prior to the formulation of the curricular designs, or the
implementation of cycles, particularly the third cycle, without first training teachers to teach it).
The simultaneous nature of the reform produced overlapping and a significant overload on the
provinces’ and educational institutions’ administrative ability. In many cases, this contributed to
the provincial ministries neglecting the more structural medium and long term local priorities and
needs and devoting considerable energy to attending to demands deriving from the reform.
Undoubtedly, this phenomenon was not identical everywhere; each province adapted these
general educational policy guidelines to its own reality and capabilities. Some simply complied
strictly with the general regulations whereas others made the most of this guidance to meet their
own particular needs.
Finally, implementation of the reform was affected by the availability of funding. Although
resources increased, they were less than originally envisaged to carry forward the changes and
furthermore, much less than the requirements for a general transformation of the education
system.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 50
In short, the transformation lacked an exhaustive diagnosis of the education system’s actual
operating conditions and of the available human resources that would ensure the long term
changes were sustainable.
As a result of these factors, the transformation led to the implementation of a heterogeneous mix
of structures and models. Thus, in various places, old problems in the education system have not
been resolved: greater intake and retention of pupils, low quality, lack of appropriate materials,
for instance.
New instruments for improving educational quality
Dealing with social inequalities, the evaluation of the education system, information gathering,
teacher education and training and the standardization of basic knowledge for all pupils had not
been addressed at the national level until the early 90’s. The Federal Education Law was
institutionalized via different national Ministry programs:
- The improvement in the situation of the poorest schools, particularly those in rural areas, was
one of the priorities of the “Social Plan” which provided the funds for these schools, put up new
buildings or rebuilt those in poor condition; distributed books and teaching materials specially
designed for this population and established a system of scholarships for students in the lower
secondary school.
- To improve its capacity to monitor educational change, the National ministry developed new
programs for collecting, processing and publishing statistics on the education system and for the
evaluation of learning achievements.
- The reform gave a strong impetus to teacher training via the Federal Teacher Further Education
Network (Red Federal de Formación Docente Continua - RFFDC), which organized free courses
in all the country’s jurisdictions.
Curricular reform produced common core knowledge throughout the country via the Common
Basic Contents.
Management of educational institutions: autonomy vs. centralized control
The reforms of the 1990’s promoted greater institutional autonomy. As a result of this policy,
schools were able to forge new links with the community, seek alternative resources for specific
purposes and to modify their internal organization. At the same time, putting new educational
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 51
management technologies into practice through programs and projects proved to be a
mechanism for the centralized development of institutional options. Thus, school heads sought
to follow the political guidelines and regulations in force, being obliged to implement a number
of specific projects in which they attempted to reconcile the interests of the national and
provincial programs, while the interests of the institution and the community in general were
neglected. Thus, the efforts of many school managements were directed at coordinating these
projects, financed, guided and evaluated from outside by the national and/or provincial
governments. Consequently, many school authorities focused their work on the execution of
projects, adopting resolutions without sufficient participation from teachers and the community
at large, due to the need to respond to the administrative demands of the central authorities. On
occasion, this prevented them following these projects through in the classroom.
On the other hand, studies carried out in the last few years indicate that autonomy is in direct
relation to diversity and to levels of poverty. Such policies without the development of effective
compensatory mechanisms to offset the socioeconomic variables affecting school performance
have been shown to be ineffective in resolving the problem10.
The change of structure
A review of the actions carried out over the last few years shows that priority was given to
transforming the structures of the levels and cycles along with renewal of the contents. The core
of the reform process assumed the transformation of the primary and secondary schools into the
new EGB (Educación General Básica - Basic General Education) and Polymodal structures was
an unavoidable, essential requirement for improving the quality and coverage of the education
system. Priorities were focused mainly on modifying the structure of the traditional system.
In its complex implementation, this priority led to scattered strategies adopted by the different
provinces so they could adjust to the new structure, giving rise to a system currently characterized
by a great heterogeneity of institutional models both within and between provinces. This
complexity is particularly marked in Secondary Education, (the Third Cycle of Basic General
Education and the Polymodal Level).
The problems are concentrated in the Third Cycle (Lower Secondary), given that it is integrated
with study years corresponding to the previous Primary and Secondary Level. The decisions
regarding institutional location, administrative reporting and teachers in charge of the cycle gave
rise to the most varied set of combinations. With regard to location, this cycle can be taught in
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 52
institutions along with the first two cycles of the EGB, in Polymodal institutions, in an
independent institution or divided between two different institutions depending on the year. The
different rates of implementation in each of the provinces meant that in some of them the Third
Cycle is fully implemented in most schools, in others only the first years and a third group retains
the old structure.
The Polymodal Level is the least developed, with significant differences between jurisdictions.
The proposed changes have strongly affected the identity of the institutions involved. The
elimination of the old branches of Secondary Education (Commercial, Humanities, Technical and
Agro-technical) and their replacement by general area-oriented education like the Polymodal
Level, was incompatible for institutions providing an education more directly articulated with the
world of work, such as the Technical Schools. Another issue to be resolved is the lack in some
areas of teachers trained to teach the curriculum for this level.
In short, the change in structure, despite having been a priority for educational policy over the
last few years, has not been completed and today the education system is in a situation of
"crystallized transition ".
Access, equity and quality
Despite the efforts of the national and provincial states during the last decade, the system’s
problems of quality, equity and internal performance persist. The objectives proposed with the
transformation initiated ten years ago have not yet been achieved.
In connection with teaching quality and school performance, the national evaluation schemes
show that a significant proportion of pupils do not achieve the minimum levels of knowledge
and competencies required for participation in social and productive life. These schemes show a
wide range and variety of results among social sectors, regions and provinces.
As a result of the actions of the last decade, there has been an increase in the coverage in the
system as a whole. There is a trend to growth in school attendance by young people aged 13 to
19 focused on the quintile with the lowest per capita income. Nevertheless, the objective of
universal access and continuity in basic education for all Argentine children and young people has
not yet been achieved.
It should be stressed that the quality and performance of education and access thereto are
conditioned by the economic structure, the regional and social inequality of which has become
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 53
very marked during the last decade. Despite the level of investment and the significant degree of
coverage achieved, the compensatory actions implemented by the Ministry of Education lacked
sufficient articulation both within the national Ministry and with other state areas and
organizations. Current conditions require more efficient use of the resources and the drawing up
and execution of integrated strategies for social development. The different types of direct and
indirect subsidies to populations at risk of exclusion – as in the case of scholarships for pupils in
the lower secondary school – have helped to increase entry and continuity in school. However,
there has been little in the way of radical strategies to change the current cost-benefit relationship
for these sectors of the population. In fact, it would appear that the objective of retaining pupils
in Secondary Education and for them to effectively achieve fundamental learnings is only being
met in some schools.
Besides these constraints, subsidies to pupils are inadequate. Evaluations by the National
Program of Student Scholarships show that in 1999 only 43% of the 267.000 candidates actually
received them. The scholarships have managed to cover only a quarter of potential recipients11.
Improvements and refurbishing of school buildings and investment in equipment (textbooks,
teaching libraries, computers, some laboratory equipment) are still far from being sufficient to
guarantee equality of learning opportunities for all children in the country. The commitments by
the national and provincial authorities in the Federal Pact of 1994, in which targets were defined
for equipment such as libraries and computer equipment, and infrastructure improvement in all
schools, have not been fully met.
Other factors also contribute to the persistence of inequality. Although the resources provided by
the national authorities as compensatory programs have been progressively distributed –more
resources to the less well-endowed provinces–, these have been insufficient to reverse or even
compensate for the limitations of provincial funding. One of the factors that would seem to have
restricted the effectiveness of the national resources in improving the distribution of educational
spending has been a "substitution effect" between national and provincial resources. This means
that, in the years when there is an increase in resources from the compensatory programs, most
provinces devote fewer resources to education.
Performance levels of pupils from the most underprivileged sectors are a key factor in articulating
the problem of quality and equity.
The “Social Plan” and “New School” programs used various means of encouraging innovation in
educational institutions, but it has not yet proved possible to provide widespread projects that
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 54
can be evaluated and transferred and have an impact on results that will improve quality and
increase retention in the poorer sectors.
In short, improvement in the conditions of equity and quality require –as well as a larger budged
than has been made available in the last few years – the definition of precise, medium term goals,
that can be evaluated, the setting of public criteria for resource allocation and planning in which
there is convergence and articulation of the different social policies with pedagogical mechanisms
for improvement in quality, and in pupil retention and performance.
The lack of articulation in Higher Education
As a result of the history of various governmental administrations and of different political and
educational projects, higher education is in the nature of a mosaic reflecting the varied attempts
at resolving both specific and structural problems which respond to a particular concept of
higher education and of the relative importance of the different types of tertiary education.
Within the higher education system it is the universities that have the clearest definition of their
mission and their functions, although they have been modifying their reference model in line with
various successive institutional paradigms. In spite of the consolidation of the principle of
autonomy for the national universities, they have developed a historically similar model based on
shared principles that have acted as a cultural ideal. This was not the case with non-university
higher education institutions. So far the need to articulate university and non-university higher
education had not been raised. In the last decade in particular, the university sub-system, both
public and private, has tended to become more diversified. There has been a persistent lack of
coordination in the system, leading to what is known as a “binary system” of higher education.
The system’s internal lack of symmetry is reflected in the enrollment in the university sub-system
(74 % of the total for this level) compared to the non-university sub-system (which has only 26
%). The number of institutions in each case also shows a marked imbalance. There are around
400 universities with 74 % of all students and approximately 1700 institutions for the 26 % in
non-university higher education. Spending per student in the non-university higher education
sub-system is $2.555 while spending on each university student is $1.887.
These differences arise from the lack of articulation between the two sectors of the higher
education system. A binary system of options, marked by a strong bias in academic and social
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 55
prestige is unlikely to be able to satisfy students’ varied needs and capabilities in a country facing
significant social problems.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 56
1.4. MAJOR PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION AT THE START OF THE
XXI CENTURY
For the next decade, Argentina faces the challenge of generating educational policies and
allocating resources to ensure compliance with the objectives laid down in the Federal Education
Law, particularly those relating to the extension of compulsory education from seven to ten years
and the systematic fostering of improved quality and equity. The policies will focus on actively
promoting and guaranteeing universal compulsory education and significantly increasing the
levels of entry and retention in post-compulsory education.
Taking into account the characteristics, achievements and barriers to the process of change of the
last few years, the core problems to which the national Ministry, the Federal Education Council
and the Ministries of Education of the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires will give priority
during the 2001-2010 period are:
1. Federal coordination of education policy.
2. Improvement of the information and evaluation systems
3. Extension of compulsory basic education on a footing of quality and equity
4. Reorganization of secondary education
5. Education of young people and adults
6. Strengthening of the teaching profession
7. Development of new technologies in schools
8. Integration of the Higher Education system
Coordination of federal education policy
The National Education Ministry has set about improving the planning and decision making
processes in order to draw up strategies for change that take into account the capabilities and
limitations of each province. The aim is thus to draw up a long term educational policy, strongly
coordinated at the federal level, but organized and agreed to by all actors involved.
The National Ministry’s strategies are:
�� To give greater power to federal planning and coordination of educational policies.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 57
�� To draw up a strategic plan for 2001-2010 agreed between the national ministry and the
provinces that will set out the matrix of problems, priorities, policies and medium and
long term goals, taking into account the provinces’ constitutional and legal powers.
�� To establish mechanisms that will ensure effectiveness and transparency in policy
formulation and execution and resource allocation.
Extension of compulsory education on a footing of quality and equity
One of the advances at the regulatory level during the last decade was the extension of
compulsory years of schooling. However, there have so far been only limited achievements in
meeting these objectives. We are still far from guaranteeing the right of all social sectors to access
to quality education on an equal basis.
As a function of social and regional differences, the Ministry of Education is implementing
strategies to shape a more equitable system, paying particular attention to the problems of
dropping out, repeating years, and low learning achievements in basic education.
This aim of education policy involves setting a common minimum level of inputs for all schools
in the country. In this respect the following actions are being implemented:
�� Expansion of an integrated system of scholarships, particularly focused on the lower
secondary sector, on the re-entry of young people who have dropped out of school and
on work training.
�� Joint implementation by the national Ministry and the provincial ministries of the
Program of Compensatory Actions in Education (Programa de Acciones Compensatorios
en Educación), to guarantee that lower income sectors can gain equal access to
educational services regardless of their geographical location. To do so, there are
coordinated, integrated assistance plans in progress for the populations most adversely
affected by socioeconomic conditions. Likewise, in cooperation with the provinces, there
are direct actions with schools operating areas of poverty.
�� Guaranteeing 180 effective teaching days throughout the country and additional periods
in the provinces with the highest school failure rate.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 58
�� The provision of pens, pencils etc. and textbooks for pupils and libraries and teaching
equipment for classrooms and schools. During 2001, the Equity program will attend to
the needs of fourteen thousand schools in the different levels and subject areas. The
Infrastructure Program (Programa de Infraestructura) provides basic services (water,
electricity and gas) for all schools and undertakes the extension and refurbishing of
existing buildings and the construction of new ones to respond to both the increase in
enrollment and the disrepair of existing establishments.
�� Expansion of courses to provide an adequate response to cultural diversity.
�� Gathering information regarding experiences in schools that undertake community
support projects and fostering of networks between the community and schools.
These actions are accompanied by a follow-up and quality evaluation system which periodically
makes it possible to detect variations not only in pupils’ learning achievements, but also in the
indispensable inputs for guaranteeing the quality of the education process.
Improvement of the information and evaluation systems
The annual evaluations of the results of learning from 1995 to date are an instrument of great
significance for diagnostic purposes and policy design.
As from the recent creation of the Institute for Educational Quality (Instituto para el Desarrollo
de la Calidad Educativa - IDECE), these evaluations will be articulated with an overall strategy of
information gathering and research whose objectives will be:
�� to foster and sustain an ongoing process of evaluation of the education process at the
different levels, stages, cycles and years, which will help to improve their quality and reduce
educational inequalities.
�� to organize and maintain an integrated system of educational data guaranteeing continuous,
reliable production and dissemination of information on the state and progress of the
education system.
This information and the evaluations of the education system are the input for decision
making on national and provincial educational policy and are made available to the education
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 59
community as a whole to help to improve the educational projects in each of the country’s
schools.
Secondary education
This sector currently requires priority attention, given that this is where the problems of a socio-
economically and culturally diverse age group and the weaknesses in the policies for adolescents
converge. Secondary education still has a very low capacity to retain pupils and perform
efficiently. The problems of failure in the early years of the new cycle and pupils’ low academic
achievements at this level persist, although with marked differences in the country’s different
regions.
The secondary school preserves features of the traditional school’s pedagogical model, such as
organizational inflexibility, a strong disciplinary role, emphasis on teacher-centered exposition
and the spoken word as the main means of communication. Young people and adolescents,
however, face a daily barrage of knowledge, codes and values from the audiovisual culture and
increasingly from the mass media. On the other hand, these days secondary school is the
minimum level of formal education required in the labor market even for relatively simple jobs.
In this context, the national Ministry is implementing the policies required to guarantee
educational quality and equity in secondary schools throughout the country. This policy proposes
the implementation of new models of institutional and curricular organization and the
improvement of secondary education by means of:
�� setting up teacher working groups for joint planning, the exchange of experiences, a stronger
professional culture, the detection of common problems, the development of tutoring and
follow-up tasks,
�� updating teaching practices via incorporation of pupils’ interests and their participation in the
various learning and personal development experiences,
�� fostering greater effective school autonomy to improve teaching coordination and increase
the capacity for processing the demands and needs of the school’s members and of the
community,
�� increasing the time school installations are used outside regular school hours for activities
promoting youth culture in schools,
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 60
�� the development of strategies for the consolidation of learning in pupils at risk of failure at
school,
�� the fostering of a curriculum that will concentrate teaching on a limited corpus of basic
knowledge and competencies.
Education of Young People and Adults
The figures for illiteracy and individuals lacking full compulsory basic schooling, the explosive
increase in the demand for secondary schooling for adults, the profound transformations in the
productive system and in social and labor relations, and the swift pace of change in scientific and
technological paradigms, among other things, make it necessary to develop stable State policies
by integrating those of different ministries and public bodies. Traditionally, education for young
people and adults tended to be restricted to literacy and post-literacy teaching, with marginal
attempts at activities linked to professional training, mostly not articulated with basic education.
A society marked by change requires the individual to learn to take decisions based on autonomy,
creativity, critical analysis, logical reasoning, confidence and preparedness for change and
transformation.
The concept of further education underlying the actions of the Ministry of Education provides a
broader framework for educational policy, in that it involves not only sectors that have been
excluded from the formal provisions of the education system but also those who, while having
had contact with them, urgently need to participate in further education in its various forms.
The Ministry of Education is developing projects to articulate the formal education processes
with the different sectors of the adult population. The policies for the sector have the following
objectives:
��To articulate general education and professional training, integrating education for
citizens and qualifications for the working world.
��To reorganize the education of young people and adults, bearing in mind different
scenarios and audiences (such as the training of micro-entrepreneurs, business training
for the Small and Medium Size Enterprise Sector, the organization of voluntary
workers, dealing with immigrants and prison education).
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 61
��To comply with compensatory policies for young people and adults by optimizing and
making the structure of services and curricular criteria for elementary and basic
education more flexible. 1
Strengthening of the teaching profession
The upgrading and support for the teaching profession is one of the priorities of educational
policy for the ten years 2001-2010. Mention has already been made of the difficulties for reform
with regard to teachers participating in policy design and implementation. For various reasons,
the courses implemented through the Teacher Further Education Network have not made any
significant contribution to improvements in the day to day practices of primary and secondary
teachers. Improvement in quality requires the upgrading of teaching as an indispensable
condition for the functioning of the education system as a whole. It is necessary to develop
policies to improve the capacity of schools and their authorities to lead educational projects and
integrate them into their communities. In general, institutional autonomy requires a strategy for
improving management at all levels of the education system. During this decade particular
attention will be paid to:
1. The training of school authorities and teachers in competencies such as leadership,
delegation, problem solving, communication, teamwork, foresight and negotiation.
2. There will be a solid, sustained policy of support, improvement and strengthening of the
teacher’s role and working conditions. It will be attempted to incorporate teachers’ views in
the definition and focusing of educational policies.
With regard to teacher training, the National Teacher Education Program (Programa Nacional
de Formación Docente) gives priority to the following actions:
1. Strengthen teacher training institutions through the promotion of self-evaluation, attendance
by teachers at specialization courses run by universities and the design of networked specialist
activities in teacher training establishments that are to function as poles of development.
2. Encourage the influence of teacher training institutions on the quality of the education system
through collaboration with teachers in the surrounding schools and the encouragement of
innovative projects in those schools.
3. Establish networks between Teacher Training Institutes for the purpose of designing
cooperative actions and exchanging up-to-date information.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 62
The development of new technologies in schools
The incorporation of information and communication into everyday life has produced a real
cultural transformation, which has been called the "information society".
For the ten years 2000-2010 projects are being developed for children and young people to be
trained in the handling and use of information widely available in various media, particularly
digital media. Information and communication technologies are integrated into schools to help
improve teaching and learning processes by critical use of the new technologies. At the same time
there are training activities, development of contents, computer and connective equipment so
that all teachers in service have the opportunity of progressive access to training in new
technologies. The national Ministry, through the Teaching Resources Program (Programa de
Recursos Didácticos), is providing computer equipment and Internet connection in schools to set
up an educational Intranet. Teachers from schools throughout the country are encouraged to
create contents for dissemination via the Educ.ar website. The function of this site is to foster the
inclusion of new technologies in teaching.
Integration of the Higher Education system
At this level, the challenge is to construct an integrated system that will provide broader options.
The proposed reformulation has the following general objectives:
�� To make higher education more democratic and of a higher quality
�� To encourage relevant training alternatives and different types of institution
The specific objectives are as follows:
a) To articulate the different types of higher education into an integrated system.
b) To thus allow greater curricular flexibility and mobility of students.
c) To train students so they will have the following characteristics:
�� Versatility in training and increasing specialization, so they can adapt to the constant changes
in professional fields.
�� Autonomy to identify problems, produce solutions, take decisions and obtain new experience.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 63
�� Flexibility to break with routine and the ability to learn, unlearn and adopt new approaches in
thinking and in professional and social practice.
�� Ability to design new personal and professional projects.
d) To increase their chances of employment and of generating their own enterprises.
e) To develop different types of studies in higher education establishments designed to meet
local and regional needs.
This restructuring of higher education as a whole, on the basis of existing institutions and from
an overall perspective, will make it possible to resolve issues such as:
�� the definition of different types of institution to open up as many alternative routes as
possible and thus democratize the opportunities for access, continuance, and moving in and
out of higher education;
�� articulation between types of institution to facilitate access to higher levels of training and
avoid dead ends;
�� the development of varied, flexible types of training, at different levels and in different types
of institution, through flexible curricular management, which will make it possible to review
study programs in relation to the dynamics of the disciplines and of society;
�� articulation with a reasonable quality of secondary education that will provide the
indispensable foundation for higher education and help students to make considered, critical
vocational choices.
The Tertiary Institutes will allow their students access to the university networks or other tertiary
institutions. These institutions will be able to provide:
�� General basic university training with academic certification as the first stage in a university
degree course.
�� Training of technicians in short and medium length courses, teacher training and arts training.
These studies will be entitled to subsequent accreditation, by automatic recognition or
specific approval, to undertake university degree courses.
�� Industrial and professional education, training and re-training for adults who wish to start or
re-start formal studies –as an option to complement adult education – or by a non-formal
type of study.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 64
In each locality, Tertiary Institutes will be able to become centers for direct interaction with their
environment and provide flexible education, training, refresher courses and re-training
appropriate to their local and regional society and to the working world.
This proposal for integrating higher education will provide society with a quality system, with bi-
directional courses in all types of institutions and minimum basic entry requirements that will
make it possible to achieve top academic levels regardless of where studies were initiated.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 65
2. EDUCATION CONTENTS AND LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR THE XXI CENTURY
(NURSERY/PRE-SCHOOL, PRIMARY/BASIC AND FORMAL AND INFORMAL SECONDARY
EDUCATION)
Curriculum setting, principles and assumptions
The decision making process: What decisions and who takes them at each level
The National Ministry of Education is responsible for “Establishing, in agreement with the
Federal Council for Culture and Education (Consejo Federal de Cultura y Educación – CFCyE),
objectives and common basic curriculum contents in the different educational levels, cycles and
special programs to facilitate pupils’ horizontal and vertical mobility, leaving sufficient space
available in the curriculum for the inclusion of content in line with Provincial, Municipal,
Community and School requirements” (Federal Education Law N° 24.195; article 53).
Between 1994 and 1998 the Common Basic Contents, the curricular designs, the subject areas
and methods for evaluating the cycles, levels and special programs that constitute the education
system were agreed in the Federal Council of Culture and Education (Federal Education Law N°
24.195; article 56).
The curricular policy developed during the 1990’s set three levels of curricular specification:
national, provincial and City of Buenos Aires, and institutional. The Common Basic Contents
(CBC) for the different levels in the education system, determined at the national level, lay down
the universe of knowledge considered legitimate for teaching in schools throughout the country.
The curricular reform process mobilized significant technical and financial resources. The
complete renovation of teaching content for each of the new levels, cycles and subject areas
meant teaching methods were significantly modernized.
The setting of the Common Basic Content (CBC) for all levels, cycles and special
programs
Between 1970 and 1990 there were practically no curricular transformations involving reviews of
the teaching contents in the different cycles and levels in the system. From 1984, with the return
to democracy, some provinces introduced changes into the curricular designs for some levels in
their education systems. This provided them with better conditions and technical experience for
undertaking the changes imposed on them by the new structure and for setting curricular designs.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 66
In 1993 the CFCyE and the National Ministry of Education initiated the setting of the Common
Basic Contents (CBC) for all levels, cycles and special programs. This process was carried out in
different stages and involved the organization of three circuits for selecting and setting the
Common Basic Contents: technical, federal and national.
This process lasted from 1994 to 1998. The products agreed were:
�� Common Basic Contents for Nursery/Pre-School Education, (1995)
�� Common Basic Contents for Basic General Education, (1994)
�� Common Basic and Area Orientated Contents for the Polymodal Level, (1997)
�� Common Basic Contents and Basic Curricular Contents for Teacher Training (1998)
The agreements approving the CBC were endorsed by the National Ministry of Culture and
Education by means of various resolutions validating the pertinent certificates nationally. The
national State thus attempts to guarantee unity within the diverse framework of provincial
decision making.
The agreement of Basic Contents for all cycles and levels provided the provinces with a common
curricular base for the development of their curricular designs and their curricular orientations
for the special programs.
Setting of provincial curricular designs and curricular orientations for special
programs1
Once the basic contents for each of the levels and subject areas was approved, the National
Ministry of Culture and Education organized a concerted process of Curricular Design with the
provincial technical teams.2
Most of the provincial education ministries’ administrative structures lacked curriculum
development areas. This meant it was necessary to set up teams capable of undertaking the
curricular designs for the different cycles and levels of the provincial education system. The unit
in the National Education Ministry in charge of the selection, contracting, follow-up and
monitoring of compliance with goals was the Regional Program for Investment in the Education
System (Programa Regional de Inversiones en el Sistema Educativo - PRISE).
The provinces and the Government of the City of Buenos Aires formulated their curricular
designs through a process of selection, contextualization and sequencing of the CBC and the
definition of the teaching methodology and the criteria for moving pupils up and granting them
credits.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 67
The Cooperative Seminars for Curricular Transformation (Los Seminarios Cooperativos para la
Transformación) were the mechanism for articulating the national guidelines and the work of the
provincial curricular committees. This was an attempt to provide provincial teams with the
opportunity to improve their production and for the pace and quality thereof to be monitored by
the national Ministry.
This working method was used from 1995 to 1999. The result was the Standardized Curricular
Designs, documents that became models to be followed, basically in the provinces with the least
technical capacity.
Taking the provincial curricular designs as a basis, educational institutions had to define their
own curricular project (Proyecto Educativo Institucional -PEI), including the teaching plans
drawn up by each teacher. Standards and mechanisms that legally and technically fitted the
development of the curriculum were formulated for each of these levels.
A significant achievement of this process was the possibility of simultaneously having new
contents throughout the country. These contents, as well as serving the equity of the national
education system, provided a frame of reference for teacher education and training and for the
evaluation of the quality of learning. However, criteria were not stipulated, at the federal and
provincial and City of Buenos Aires levels, for prioritizing minimum content and competencies
for each of the educational levels and cycles in line with specific, heterogeneous educational
problems.
The lack of consideration given to the teaching conditions in schools and the scant participation
by the teaching profession (primary and secondary teachers, teachers’ unions, professional
associations) in the setting of criteria for the selection, organization and sequencing of content,
were a barrier to the curriculum becoming part of an educational project in schools. This meant
that regulations for developing the curriculum were alien to the actual situation in schools. It is
clear that a significant part of the new content has not yet been effectively incorporated into
actual teaching.. Apart from the use of a “new” curricular language, a large number of schools
still continue to use traditional practices and content.
Definition of curricular structures
The Basic Curricular Structures agreed at the federal level have regulations governing teaching
hours, the number and type of subjects and criteria for the distribution of teaching hours. They
provide an intermediary mechanism between the CBC (first level of curricular specification) and
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 68
the provincial curricular guidelines and designs (second level of curricular specification). By Basic
Curricular Structure is understood a matrix allowing the organization and scheduling of contents,
determining the relationship between those contents, incorporating rules governing subject
combinations and grouping them in credit units called curricular areas (subjects, workshops, for
example). The Federal Basic Curricular Structure is a flexible mechanism because it includes rules
governing subject combinations for defining study programs; it establishes the maximum number
of curricular areas or subjects to be studied per year and minimum numbers of teaching hours.
Within the framework of the CFCyE, in September 1998, the Basic Curricular Structure for the
Third Cycle of the EGB and for the Polymodal Level were approved.
Definition of contents
The contents refer to the set of knowledge or cultural items considered essential for pupils to
assimilate and internalize in order to develop competencies.
Traditionally, the term content was used to refer to the data and concepts from different
disciplines. They were associated directly with the products of knowledge generation practices.
Modern curriculum theories have shown that content always goes beyond this characterization
since in fact it covers various cultural forms. As well as scientific knowledge, school teaches value
judgments, attitudes, skills, methods and procedures, both implicitly and explicitly. We need to
accept the complexity and variety of teaching content.
Criteria for the selection, formulation and organization of Content
In Argentina eight criteria have been suggested for the selection, organization and formulation of
Common Basic Contents: 1- Social significance; 2- Breadth and depth; 3- Integration into a
coherent body of knowledge; 4- Horizontal and vertical articulation; 5- Up-to-date information;
6- Openness; 7- Ranking; 8- Clarity and simplicity of the CBC.
Change and adaptation of educational content today
The National Ministry of Education is currently carrying out a work plan with the provinces and
the City of Buenos Aires which includes curricular design and development activities based on
significant and reliable information. This task proposes to set priorities in the objectives and
content proposed for school activity. It is reckoned that over the last few years curricular policy
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 69
tended to prescribe maximum content and expectations with regard to pupils’ expected
achievements. Strategies are also outlined to resolve the problems reflected in the indicators of
coverage, internal efficiency and quality of learning.
The setting of priorities is part of a policy to redefine the function of the curriculum. It is a question of appreciating the instrumental role of curricular design in the appropriate organization of teaching activities. This policies deals with:
��the educational profile of each cycle and its specific educational responsibilities;
��the basic knowledge and competencies for each curricular unit under consideration (year or cycle), and the level of progress or improvement aspired to; and
��the objectives or expectations of achievement for each curricular unit in order to establish adequate parameters for progress, credits, review and setting of remedial strategies.
Study plans, time allocated to each subject or area. Length of school year.
Number of weeks worked
Nursery/Pre-School Level
The current curricular position in Nursery/Pre-School Education varies from province to
province. Some have curricular designs prior to the approval of the Common Basic Contents and
others have defined their curriculum for the first time. In some cases, the design reflected a
process synthesizing previous production, with some degree of participation at different stages by
teachers, school authorities, supervisors, technical teams; while in others, the curricular design
was the starting point from which it is hoped to intervene in teaching practices. In one case the
curriculum is considered the cornerstone for transformation while in another it is linked with
broader, more complex and participatory processes.
The main feature of curricular designs is their homogeneity. The contents are organized in the
areas proposed by the same chapters of the CBC.
There has been some loss of specific methodological orientation in Nursery/Pre-School
Education due to the “primary influence” in Kindergartens (i.e. teaching methods at this level in
line with criteria and guidelines that are typical stereotypes of the EGB or primary school),
particularly in the 5 year-old groups. This situation is the result of the heterogeneous and unequal
development of nursery/pre-school education in the different regions of the country.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 70
First and Second Cycle of the EGB
The curricular designs for the First and Second Cycle of the EGB were the first to be defined
and implemented in a high percentage of jurisdictions in the country. The most important
challenge lay in restoring the specific nature of each cycle and the educational orientation of the
whole, for the purpose of improving the historical rates of repeat years and dropping out.
The areas incorporated into curricular design after the definition of the CBC are Ethical and
Civic Education and Technology.
In general, the areas are organized on the basis of topic axes or cores and the contents were
sequenced for each of the three years of each cycle.
Some designs included teaching hours allocated to areas per school year, others mention the
distribution of teaching hours as an annual total.
Incorporating new areas into the curriculum design using the same timetable as in the traditional
primary school has led to conflict between the amount and depth of proposed contents and the
permitted teaching hours.
Third Cycle of Basic General Education
In the third cycle of the EGB there are no separate sub-cycles or internal stages with different
certifications, and it consists of three years in most of the provinces that have implemented it.
Nevertheless, this section formally constitutes a single educational unit together with the First
and Second Cycle of the EGB in terms of credits and certification of basic compulsory studies
for all individuals.3
Curricular structure and teaching hours by areas or subjects
�� The provincial and City of Buenos Aires Curricular Designs and/or Guidelines for the Third
Cycle of Basic General Education. Taking the Common Basic Contents and the Basic
Curricular Structure as reference point, in 1996 the provinces started to develop their own
curricular designs. A third level of curricular specification is contemplated, expressed in the
schools’ own educational projects.
The Basic Curricular Structure for the Third Cycle of the EGB was drawn up bearing in mind the
following criteria:
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 71
�� to achieve international standards in total teaching hours. To progress towards 2700 hours
for the three-year cycle, on the basis of 180 school days; (five 5-hour days per week. 36
school weeks per year)
�� to define up to 10 subjects per school year;
�� to allocate a minimum of 72 hours for annual curricular areas.
This basic, flexible matrix provides various organizational alternatives, so that the provinces can define their own curricular structures within them.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 72
Table: Curricular structure of the Third Cycle of the EGB. Minimum teaching hours for the cycle by curricular areas. (Agreement with the Federal Council for Culture and
Education)
Curricular areas defined by the chapters of the CBC
Minimum number of teaching hours for the cycle
Language 360 Foreign Language 216 Mathematics 360 Physical Education 216 Social Sciences 288 Natural Sciences 288 Arts Education 216 Technology 144 Ethical and civic education 144 Regular teaching hours 2.232 Flexible teaching hours 468 Total hours envisaged for the cycle 2.700
These chapters of the CBC are organized differently in each province. The decision as to subjects
to be studied may be focused on an area or on a discipline or on a combination of the two. There
are two chapters of the CBC that may resolved differently, i.e. Technology and Ethical and Civic
Education. By way of example:
�� In Natural Sciences there are provinces that propose alternatives organized by areas: Natural
Sciences I, II y III , and in other provinces organized by disciplines: Biology, Physics and
Chemistry.
�� In Social Sciences, with a similar criterion, organization by area is proposed: Social Sciences I,
II and III, or else mixed Social Sciences, History I and Geography I, History II and
Geography II; or else a clearly disciplinary organization leading to multi-disciplinary studies.
�� The Common Basic Contents in Ethical and Civic Education are in some provinces
integrated into other curricular areas (Social Sciences), or else are organized into subjects
taught in one, two or all three years in the cycle.
�� There is a similar organization in the Technology area, which either appears in its own
curricular areas or else its contents are integrated into others.
�� Language, Mathematics, Foreign Languages and Physical Education are generally defined as
curricular areas or as subjects on the basis of one per year of the cycle.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 73
�� In the case of Arts Education, provincial and institutional solutions vary, but in the majority
of cases there is a distinction between Music and Plastic Arts in each year.
The federal curricular structure includes flexible teaching hours so institutions can define
curricular areas for the design of integrated projects, complementary courses, technological
projects or guidance and tutoring projects.
Teaching hours in the Curricular Structure of the Third Cycle of the EGB in the
provinces
Teaching hours in the Basic Curricular Structure approved by the provinces may vary by up to
approximately 20% of the total.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 74
Table: Provincial curricular structures in the Third Cycle of the EGB. Number of curricular areas and teaching hours per year
Province Basic curricular structure 1 Areas to be determined by the
provinces
Total annual teaching hours
Year Areas associated with the CBC
Hours Areas Hours
7º 7 792 - - 792 Buenos Aires 8º 7 792 - - 792
(*1) 9º 7 792 - - 792
7º 9 792 1 48 840 Catamarca 8º 9 792 - - 792 9º 9 792 - - 792 City of Buenos Aires
Decisions in progress
7º 13 912 - - 912 Córdoba 8º 13 912 - - 912 9º 13 1008 - - 1008 7º 9 792 2 120 912 Corrientes 8º 9 792 2 120 912 9º 9 792 2 120 912 7º 8 696 1 48 744 Chaco 8º 8 864 1 48 912 9º 8 912 1 48 960 7º 9 816 1 48 864 Chubut 8º 9 816 1 48 864 9º 8 816 2 120 936 7º 9 864 1 24 888 Entre Ríos 8º 9 936 1 24 960 9º 9 936 1 24 960 7º 7 648 1 96 696 Formosa 8º 8 816 1 72 888 (In transition) 9º 9 912 1 72 984 7º 9 792 1 96 888 Jujuy 8º 9 816 1 96 912 9º 9 816 1 96 912 7º 7 672 2 144 768 La Pampa 8º 9 768 2 120 888 9º 9 768 2 120 888 7º 8 936 936 La Rioja 8º 8 1188 1188 9º 8 1188
Number of teaching hours not yet established 1188
7º 7 2 696 Mendoza 8º 10 2 912 9º 10 2 912
(*1) The Civic Education content is included in the Social Sciences area. Ethical Education is not separated from
general education.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 75
The Technology contents are specifically incorporated in one weekly period in the areas of
Language, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences. In the technical schools there are
complementary curricular areas in the 8th and 9th years.
Province Basic curricular structure Areas to be defined by the provinces
Total teaching hours per cycle
Year Areas associated with the CBC
Hours Areas Hours
7º 9 720-912 2 120-72 840-984 Misiones 8º 9 720-912 2 120-72 840-984 9º 9 720-912 2 120-72 840-984 7º 8 782 1 36 828 Neuquen 8º 9 888 2 108 996 9º 9 888 2 108 996 7º 8 768 2 72 840 Río Negro 8º 11 840 2 72 912 9º 11 840 2 72 912 7º 9 696 2 48 744 Salta4 8º 10 816 2 48 864 9º 10 888 2 48 936 7º 9 744 - - 744 San Juan 8º 9 744 - - 744 9º 9 744 1 48 792 7º 10 696 1 48 744 San Luis 8º 11 840 1 48 888 9º 11 840 1 48 888 7º 9 792 1 96 888 Santa Cruz 8º 9 792 1 96 888 9º 9 792 1 96 888 7º 9 672 1 48 720 Santa Fe 8º 9 816 1 96 912 (for sec. Schools) 9º 9 888 1 48 936
7º 9 768 1 48 816 8º 9 792 1 48 840 Santiago del
Estero 9º 9 792 1 72 864 7º 9 744 2 96 840 8º 9 744 2 96 840 Tierra del Fuego 9º 9 744 2 96 840 7º 4 432 2 360 792 8º 4 456 2 432 888 9º 4 456 2 432 888 7º 8 768 1 48 840 8º 9 840 1 48 912
Tucumán (2)
9º 9 888 1 48 960 Source: Curricular Observatory Unit. Curricular and Training Administration Program. (Unidad Observatorio
Curricular. Programa de Gestión Curricular y Capacitación.) (2) Structure to be implemented in 1999.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 76
The number of teaching hours established for the different areas connected with the CBC is in
most cases higher than the minimum of 2232 hours laid down by the Federal Education Council.
There is a trend to expand the number of teaching hours, giving priority to the teaching of the
Common Basic Contents over areas defined by the institution or other options for which the
federal framework provides flexible teaching hours.
Table 2: Percentage distribution of teaching hours in curricular areas5
Curricular area
Buenos Aires
Chubut Córdoba Entre Ríos
La Pampa
Salta San Juan
Santiago del Estero
Language 18,18 14,71 12,71 15,38 14,15 14 15,78 14,28
Social Sciences
18,18 14,71 15,25 15,38 14,15 12 12,63 12,39
Natural Sciences
18,18 14,71 15,25 13,67 12,26 12 12,63 12,39
Maths 18,18 14,71 12,71 15,38 14,15 14 15,78 14,28
Physical Education
9,09 8,82 7,63 7,70 7,55 8 9,48 8,57
Arts Education
9,09 8,82 10,17 7,70 7,55 9 9,48 8,57
Technology --- 8,82 13,56 8,54 3,77 7 6,32 8,57
Ethical and Civic Ed.
--- 5,88 5,09 5,98 3,77 8 6,32 5,71
Foreign Language
9,09 8,82 7,63 7,70 7,55 8 9,48 8,57
Defined by Institution
--- --- --- 2,57 7,55 --- --- ---
Guidance and Tutoring
--- --- --- --- 7,55 8 2,10 6,67
Total 100
100 100 100 100 100
100 100
Source: Report: The basic curricular structure of the Third Cycle in eight jurisdictions. Educational Research Unit. National Ministry of Education 2000. (Informe: La estructura curricular básica del Tercer Ciclo en ocho jurisdicciones. Unidad de Investigaciones Educativas. Ministerio de Educación de la Nación 2000).
Polymodal Level and Professional Technical Education
The Polymodal Level includes two types of education: Basic General Education represented by
Common Basic Contents (CBC) which aims to guarantee the acquisition of a core of basic skills
by all students in this level of the new Argentine system. Area-Orientated Education is reflected
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 77
in the Area-Orientated Basic Contents (CBO). This content fleshes out and goes into greater
depth in different chapters of the CBC.
Basic General Education and Area-Orientated Education are grouped into five subject areas:
��Humanities and Social Sciences;
��Natural Sciences;
��Economics and Organizational Administration;
��Production of Goods and Services;
��Communication, Arts and Design. All these subject areas share a common core of humanistic, social, scientific and technological
knowledge, although they organize and develop the contents in line with the specific
requirements of the area of knowledge and the institutions’ regional and community contexts.
The Polymodal Level can be complemented by and integrated with professional technical training
in specific production areas by means of different Technical Professional Courses (TTP)
provided by institutions.
The Technical Professional Courses provide an opportunity for diversifying the curriculum in
this stage of education and give training in professional competencies for future secondary level
technicians.
The established Technical Professional Course areas are:
�� Process industries. �� Electronics. �� Agricultural production. �� Health and environment. �� Electro-mechanical equipment and
installations. �� Aeronautics and avionics.
�� Construction. �� Organizational administration. �� Informatics. �� Multimedia communication. �� Free time, recreation and tourism. �� Bio-aquatic resources.
The Third Cycle of the EGB and the Polymodal Level can also be articulated and integrated with
Artistic Professional Courses (TAP) in Music, Dance, Theater, Visual Arts, Audiovisual Arts,
Multimedia Arts, and Literature, aiming at a polyvalent education articulated with specialized
artistic training.
The Polymodal Level grants a single certificate which entitles the holder to access to any kind of
higher education. If a student completes the Polymodal Level and a full TTP or TAP , he/she
obtains a secondary level technical certificate in the relevant specialization.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 78
The school day at the Polymodal Level lasts for a minimum of 5 hours, with a school year of 180
days. There is a 5-day week, from Monday to Friday, with an estimated 36 teaching weeks. There
are therefore 900 hours available for each year and 2.700 hours for the whole level.
The number of teaching hours for each Technical Professional Course varies from 1200 to 1800
hours. The Polymodal Level may include in its teaching hours subjects or modules from the
Technical Professional Courses and Artistic Professional Courses for up to 25 % of its total 2700
hours. Some professional courses can continue into a 4th year.
Curricular framework: basic content, curricular structure and teaching hours per areas or
subjects
The curricular frameworks, drawn up and agreed federally for the Polymodal Level, the Technical
Professional Courses and the Artistic Professional Courses are:
a) The Common Basic Contents (CBC) and the Area Orientated Basic Contents (CBO) for the
Polymodal Level. These contents were approved in 1997 and provide a national parameter
adopted by the provinces for drawing up provincial curricular guidelines.
b) The Basic Curricular Structure for the Polymodal Level. Like the Third Cycle of the EGB this
is an intermediate mechanism between the Basic Contents and the provinces’ curricular
guidelines or designs.
c) The curricular structures and the respective basic curricular documents for the Technical
Professional Courses (TTP) and Artistic Professional Courses (TAP). These courses consist of a
set of modular subjects of increasing complexity which provide specialized training.
In the Basic Curricular Structure set out for the Polymodal Level three types of curricular areas
are distinguished:
��Curricular areas common to all subject areas. Their function is to guarantee a general
basic education focused on the development of a core of common basic contents
��Curricular areas specific to each subject area. Their function is to enable learning of the
basic competencies in relation to the fields of knowledge and expertise laid down for each
subject area,
��Curricular areas established by the institution. These will be laid down by the institutions
on the basis of the criteria established by the provinces.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 79
The Basic Curricular Structure for the Polymodal Level lays down a number of teaching hours
for curricular areas common to all subject areas which varies from 50 to 60%. The number of
teaching hours for the curricular areas specific to each subject area, between 25% and 30%. The
remaining teaching hours are for the curricular areas established by the institution.
This curricular structure lays down a number of criteria:
- To devote a minimum of 2700 hours to this stage of education on the basis of 180 teaching
days,
- To establish a maximum of 30 curricular areas and no more than 10 curricular areas per year
within the 2700 hours envisaged for this stage of education
- To establish a minimum of 72 hours per annual curricular area.
Given the comprehensive nature of this upper secondary cycle, the aim is for all pupils in the
different subject areas to have educational experiences in all the fields of knowledge established
in the Common Basic Contents, but in some there are options. There are therefore alternative
choices in the fields of knowledge relating to Humanities and Social Sciences, Natural Sciences,
Art and Communication and Technology.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 80
Curricular areas in all subject areas and rules governing subject combinations for the three years of the Polymodal Level
Language and Literature Two or three curricular areas Language and Literature I Language and Literature II Language and Literature III Foreign Languages Three curricular areas Foreign language I Foreign language II Foreign language III Mathematics Two or three curricular areas Mathematics I Mathematics II Mathematics III Ethics and Civics. One curricular area Ethics and Civics Physical Education. Two or three curricular areas Physical Education I Physical Education II Physical Education III
Natural Sciences Two or three curricular areas: Physics I Chemistry I Biology I Humanities and Social Sciences Three or four curricular areas: History I Geography I Economics I Philosophy I Psychology Technology One or two curricular areas: Production processes Administration technologies Information and communication technologies Art and Communication. One or two curricular areas: Artistic-communication languages Communication Contemporary culture and aesthetics
Total: between 18 and 20 subjects
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 81
The curricular areas specific to the subject area include those compulsory for the subject area,
and optional areas depending on the particular institutional project. Four curricular areas have
been defined for each subject area in the Polymodal Level which must be studied by all pupils in
the country, and there are a further three which are to be optional for each province or
institution. The common areas can be seen in the following table:
Curricular areas specific to each subject area for the three years Subject Area Compulsory
Natural Sciences Biology II Chemistry II Physics II Community research and participation project
Economics and organizational administration
Organizational theory and administration I Law Information systems Business planning and administration
Humanities and social sciences Culture and Communication Sociology Political Sciences Community research and participation project
Production of goods and services Control technologies Materials technologies Legal framework for production processes Technological project
Communication arts and design Artistic languages II Design Images and contexts Communication production and administration
Number of areas 4 compulsory areas
The curricular areas established by the institutions are aimed to incorporate the requirements and
peculiarities of each institutional context.
The Technical Professional Courses are organized by curricular modules. A module is a specific
type of curricular area. It is defined as a unit that organizes the teaching-learning process around
the development of the skills required to exercise the profession (professional competencies).
The organization, selection and sequencing of the contents of a module are usually carried out by
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 82
identifying core problems at work. These problems are used to define the skills and contents, the
educational activities and the standards and criteria for evaluating learning.
Special Programs
- Special education
The construction of new paradigms spread the concept of special educational needs, this
understood as the needs of individuals who require aid or resources not normally available in
their educational environment so they can acquire the knowledge established in the curriculum.
Argentine schools have been implementing actions based on the concept of an integrated school
for over two decades.
The support services for the schools in the formal education system vary in each of the various
jurisdictions. In general there are interdisciplinary teams including psychologists, educational
psychologists, speech therapists, social workers, either peripatetic or integrated into the schools,
as well as departments providing pupils, parents and educational institutions in general with
preventive measures, diagnoses, guidance and, if necessary, referral.
The following actions are being carried out in the different provinces:
• implementation of follow-up and evaluation programs, by those in charge of school
integration and pedagogical adaptation projects
• definition of evaluation, credit and pupil certification instruments
• shared teacher training;
• setting up of Guidance, Refresher and Research Centers for the community and for
the educational institutions that integrate and deal with people with Special
Educational Needs
• permanent integration teachers in schools with integrated children to facilitate
inclusion;
• institutional educational projects (proyectos educativos institucionales - PEI) and
specific projects in regular and special schools;
• network of early stimulation services
• paid secondments in government departments
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 83
Ordinary teacher training programs have also incorporated “Attention to diversity” as a problem
focus. The teacher training courses have included basic knowledge dealing with diversity and with
the individual with special educational needs. Special teacher training programs are in progress in
the most important urban centers.
Education of Young People and Adolescents
Argentina is currently reformulating the EDJA (Educación de Jóvenes y Adolescentes), mainly its
concepts, characteristics and social value. The EDJA’s function is to establish a permanent
program of basic and general education and of professional training for:
a) those individuals who, having attended the regular education system, have not completed
their studies;
b) those who, never having attended, require literacy courses and/or basic education; or
c) those who, having been trained for certain trades, require knowledge relevant to their
socio-cultural environment and working needs, updating of their work and/or professional
knowledge, etc..
On the one hand, it is recognized that there are groups and individuals with educational needs
that the educational system as a whole has failed to sustain and, on the other, there is recognition
of the need for further training on the part of the population as a whole. There is coexistence of
target groups of different age groups and with varied needs and interests:
- illiterate young people and adults over 16;
- young people and adults who have not completed basic and secondary schooling;
- young people and adults who, on the basis of their prior certification and knowledge, wish to
obtain new knowledge and certification from the educational system.
Teacher training
With the passing of the Federal Education Law, the national State assumes responsibility for
guaranteeing the right of teachers to further teacher training and education.
The objective of teacher training was to promote educational quality and improve the levels of
school retention by means of the constant updating of contents, methodologies and resources to
stimulate improvement of the teaching processes; the support of school and classroom
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 84
management; and attention to diversity, due to either socioeconomic, cultural or ethnic
differences.
The Federal Teacher Further Education Network (Red Federal de Formación Docente Continua
- RFFDC) was the authority charged with centralizing all aspects of training at the national level.
This network constituted an articulated system for integrating actions for undergraduate training,
further training and teacher refresher courses among its constituent institutions. Both the
Universities and the Teacher Training Institutes are members of the Network. These institutions
clustered around twenty four Provincial and City of Buenos Aires administration centers, located
in each of the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires. The administrative centers were charged
with organizing, controlling the management and follow-up of the training courses given in their
jurisdiction. They were also in charge of the selection of training proposals from the different
state and private run organizations. Within this framework, the National Ministry of Education
became the National administration center, responsible for coordinating and providing technical
and financial assistance to the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires.
Between 1994 and 1999, the RFFDC was organized on the basis of three principles:
�� operational decentralization and integration of the system,
�� resource optimization, and
�� quality teacher training.
The status of the RFFDC
With regard to the setting up of the network, throughout these years the following have been set
in motion:
�� The setting up of the national and provincial administrative centers and their technical
teams.
�� The setting up of national and provincial instructor teams for direct training and instructor
training.
�� The setting up of teams of tutors for distance and semi-distance training, articulated with
other programs.
�� The participation of a wide variety of institutions in the presentation of projects and the
implementation of training courses.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 85
�� The integration of different subject areas and alternative ways of organizing public
examinations, centralized proposals, courses requiring attendance and distance courses,
etc.
�� The incorporation of the basic and advanced training, and refresher functions into a large
number of the IFD for their transformation in line with the Agreements of the CFCyE.
�� The drawing up of documents establishing guidelines and parameters for the different
authorities and levels of training.
�� The drawing up of national and provincial regulations governing the mechanisms for the
administration, implementation and evaluation of training.
�� The setting up of a federal information and certification system (REFEPEC)
�� The encouragement of mechanisms and instruments for controlling the academic and
administrative quality of training.
In relation to technical assistance for the provinces, the regional assistants provided advice to the
provincial administrative centers and their technical teams
Teacher education
In relation to curricular structure, Teacher Education in Argentina is regulated by two national
laws: the Federal Education Law and the Higher Education Law. From these derive the
Framework Agreements approved by the education ministers of all the provinces and the City of
Buenos Aires in the Federal Council of Culture and Education and in the Universities Council.
To define the Teacher Training contents, Common Basic Contents have been drawn up as
follows:
- undergraduate for Nursery/Pre-School and the First and Second Cycle of Basic General
Education.
- undergraduate for the Third Cycle of Basic General Education and the Polymodal Level.
The provinces and the City of Buenos Aires have initiated these processes with varying degrees
of prescriptiveness. In some cases, the subjects and teaching hours have been decided, in others
only the former have been established, leaving the institutions to decide the teaching hours in line
with established general agreements.
In 1999 the following agreements were established: the maximum number of subjects that can be
studied simultaneously by pupils, correlativity by subjects and not by years, demarcation of
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 86
contents to be taught by restoring the tradition of subjects in the specific academic field, the
development of teaching practices from the start of training.
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 87
1Notes of Chapter 1.1 1 The details exposed in 1.2 lack accuracy due to the inexistency of a national demographic census since 1991. This is particularly problematic for calculating the ratio of school enrolment, which is a fundamental index that informs about the levels of access to the educational system. In order to calculate those ratios, statistical projections were made that, beyond its technical correlation, always implies a certain error due to the elapse of time since the data were collected in the census of 1991. 2 The national territories – juridical body currently extinguished within national socio-political organizations – depended administrative and politically on the nation. Lately, they became the current provinces. 3 Láinez, O: Name of the National Senator who presented this particular law. Notes of Chapter 1.2 1 Data obtained through the National Program of Statistics of Health, body that belongs to the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Republic of Argentina 2 Data obtained through the National Program of Statistics of Health, body that belongs to the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Republic of Argentina 3 The Index of Unsatisfied Basic Needs is the measurement through which the National Institute of Statistics and Census measures the structure poverty levels among the population. This measurement requires that other indices of deprivation be taken into account: heaping, household conditions, sanitary conditions, school accessing and surviving capabilities. 4 Source: Ministry of Culture and Education. Program of Technical Aid for the Curricular Transformation, Coverage and Quality in Basic Education, December, 1999. 5 Data gathered through the Survey of Social Development, August 1997, System of Information, Monitoring and Evaluation of Social Programs. The survey was conducted on a sample that represents the 96% or urban populations and 83,4% of the total. 6The National Ministry of Culture and Education elaborated an index of building quality that ponders aspects of structure and functional conditions, context situation and legal issues of the schools´ buildings along the country. The index was design in 1999. It was defined according to the data gathered through the National Census of Teachers and School Buildings conducted in 1994. Beyond the specific values it takes, the index shows the different regional situations that exist in respect to this feature. 7 In 1999 the evaluation was done on a sample. For that sample the 3* grade, 6* grade, 7* grade and 9* grade of General Basic Education (3*, 6*, 7* grade of Primary school and 2* year of Secondary school, respectively) were selected. The subjects under evaluation were Math and Language. For the 6* year of General Basic Education (6* grade of Primary school) evaluations were made on Natural Sciences and Social Science. For the last year of the Secondary level (5* and 6* year according to the old system structure) the evaluation was conducted under the mode of a census and was applied to Math and Language. 8 The different jurisdictions are organized according to the scores they get for the index of Educational urgency. This index combines diverse indices of school rendering such as: the withholding, school life
Informe nacional: El desarrollo de la educación 88
expectancy and had shown a high level of correlation (aprox. 0;85) with the index of Unsatisfied Basic Needs of each jurisdiction. 9 Law of Transfer of Educational Services Nº 24.049 of 1991, Federal Education Law Nº 24.195 of 1993 and Law of Higher Education Nº 24.521. 10 Tedesco. 11 Ravela, P (2000) Evaluation Report of the Argentine National Student Scholarship Program. Ministry of Education
Notes Chapter 1.4 1 See Res. 145/00 CFCE
Notes Chapter 2 1 The Federal Education Law designates as special programs establishments providing artistic education, education for pupils with special needs and education for young people and adults. 2 The document Series A, Nº 8 was agreed within the framework of this coordination. 3 The CFCyE’s resolution added that the Third Cycle of the EGB would constitute "...one unit with regard to psychological and evolutionary development (early adolescent years)" and would seek "to generate a differentiated teaching project by avoiding possible assimilation into existing levels" 1 For the definition of the basic curricular structure consideration is given to the criteria agreed in the Framework Agreement document Series A Nº 16. 4 Two hours of Religion are also included per implementation year, total :144 hrs.