An opportunity to agree on state policies

Argentina's educational policies have produced "tragic, inequitable, and ruinous" outcomes over the past decades, failing to equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills for their future, according to an analysis of the country's education system. The current state of learning in Argentine schools is described as dire, with a significant portion of students not achieving expected academic standards.

Data from the Aprender 2024 tests reveals alarming statistics: 54.9% of 3rd-grade primary students do not meet the expected reading level for their age. In the final year of secondary school, 43.1% of students fall below satisfactory levels in reading comprehension, and a staggering 82.3% are below satisfactory levels in mathematics. These figures are even more pronounced in state-run schools and among students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, indicating a deepening educational divide.

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If we stop to observe the results that these policies have had in recent decades in our country, we can qualify them as tragic, inequitable, and ruinous, in reference to the quality of learning received by those who pass through the dilapidated Argentine schools.

Further evidence comes from the PISA 2022 results, which place Argentina below several other Latin American countries, including Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico, in reading comprehension. An analysis by the Observatory of Argentines for Education highlights these concerning trends.

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That is to say: less and less is learned, and more unequally, consolidating an asymmetric educational matrix.

The article attributes these shortcomings to a highly centralized decision-making process, excessive bureaucracy, and inadequate incentives for teacher training and professional development. The system's structure, which primarily rewards seniority or access to hierarchical positions for income increases, exacerbates the problem, which the author claims is largely ignored by the country's leadership.

Economists Gary Becker and Theodore Schultz have demonstrated the link between education and economic development. More recently, Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren's research shows how residential location can impact future opportunities and how quality education can act as an equalizer. Locally, economist Gerry Della Paolera advocates for unifying the ministries of Economy and Education, given the global economy's reliance on science and technology for development and job creation.

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The centralization of decision-making in the education system, its excessive bureaucracy, the low incentives for teacher training, and a professional career that only rewards seniority or access to hierarchical positions for obtaining higher incomes (which are already low in themselves), sharpen the nature of the Argentine educational problem, which the leadership ignores supinely.