For my Winter term sophomore year, I volunteered for the program United Through Sport, and stayed in Buenos Aires for the month of January. I assisted with an NGO called El Puente Posible, which brings field hockey to girls in the barrios of Buenos Aires. An incredibly impactful program, I had the luck of working with Mariano Martin Alvarez, the program director and an intelligent man who Works closely with Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to get government funding and support for the program. I interviewed him to get his take on the education system in Argentina for he has kids and works with kids that are close to college age. Outside the interview, he also stressed that the local media often distorts the reality of Argentina's education system. The interview was written in spanish and I have translated it below into English.
Is education accessible for all classes?
The Argentine education system has historically been free but was always conditioned by external factors, such as child labor. Although school was free, the children of field workers also had to work and therefore were not in school. That changed dramatically with Peronism (1945-1955). Thousands of primary and secondary schools and the innovation technical schools only in Latin America allowed access for hundreds of thousands of Argentines to go to school. But at the time they prohibited child labor and guaranteed education, the 65 percent illiteracy reduced to 3 percent in less than 10 years. The icing on the cake was the elimination of tuition fees which allowed the Argentine middle class to enter college in masses. In those years the budget has tripled in universities and the university population quintupled. It is true that the son of a more humble worker can make their children go to college without problems, for it is guaranteed by the state.
Have there been recent cuts or difficulties because of the economy?
Not quite the opposite.Today we are experiencing a new Peronist spring, [when you were here] you saw the schools and the computers that were given to the kids, but I believe the most important are two programs that happened under the government of Cristina.
AUH: Universal Allowance for Children, this program gives disadvantaged families a financial contribution for each child they have, provided they send their children to school and make compulsory medical checks. Enrollment numbers increased by 40 percent in recent years and the vaccination system reaches all Argentine children free.
Progress: the last program of the government and the most ambitious. The government gives a contribution of 900 pesos per month plus allowances for books 18 years olds who want to go to college. In numbers it is amazing to watch.
By 2003 only 20% of the entrants came from non-professional families (college level). For 2013, 73 percent of freshmen came from nonprofessional homes and some of them are extremely poor, but the university is free and provides financial support.
Is education accessible for all classes?
The Argentine education system has historically been free but was always conditioned by external factors, such as child labor. Although school was free, the children of field workers also had to work and therefore were not in school. That changed dramatically with Peronism (1945-1955). Thousands of primary and secondary schools and the innovation technical schools only in Latin America allowed access for hundreds of thousands of Argentines to go to school. But at the time they prohibited child labor and guaranteed education, the 65 percent illiteracy reduced to 3 percent in less than 10 years. The icing on the cake was the elimination of tuition fees which allowed the Argentine middle class to enter college in masses. In those years the budget has tripled in universities and the university population quintupled. It is true that the son of a more humble worker can make their children go to college without problems, for it is guaranteed by the state.
Have there been recent cuts or difficulties because of the economy?
Not quite the opposite.Today we are experiencing a new Peronist spring, [when you were here] you saw the schools and the computers that were given to the kids, but I believe the most important are two programs that happened under the government of Cristina.
AUH: Universal Allowance for Children, this program gives disadvantaged families a financial contribution for each child they have, provided they send their children to school and make compulsory medical checks. Enrollment numbers increased by 40 percent in recent years and the vaccination system reaches all Argentine children free.
Progress: the last program of the government and the most ambitious. The government gives a contribution of 900 pesos per month plus allowances for books 18 years olds who want to go to college. In numbers it is amazing to watch.
By 2003 only 20% of the entrants came from non-professional families (college level). For 2013, 73 percent of freshmen came from nonprofessional homes and some of them are extremely poor, but the university is free and provides financial support.
Have there been any major renovations?
The most important reform is the community and college articulation. With this unión 12 new universities were created, many inside the country so students would not have to travel to the capital to study. The university population increased by 4 times, but they also let the community to use their facilities, provide courses for people in the neighborhood, and the girls of the NGO [puente posible] are always able to do their parties in colleges!!!
You described the transition from high school to college as hard, can you explain a little bit?
[It is hard] if the students of primary and secondary school are the children of parents who left primary or secondary school in the decades of 90 and 80, during the implementation of neoliberal policies that did nothing but destroy public education. In addition a large percentage of impoverished dropped out of school, uneducated and working overtime, and they became parents that could not join with their children's schooling. These students in turn had great difficulty learning the vulnerable product that their parents came.
University admission was a giant leap for those coming from parents neglected in previous decades, and with all the past barriers it did not impede students from returning to school.
What are the major complaints or problems seen with the school system? Both higher and secondary education?
The main problem is that families situated in the 90s are in popular sectors and were excluded for many years and it is seen in many cases the impossibilities of accompanying their kids to secondary or university education.
For more information and links:
h ttp://marcospaz.com.ar/?p=24459
A link to El Puente Posible Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/elpuenteposible?fref=ts
The most important reform is the community and college articulation. With this unión 12 new universities were created, many inside the country so students would not have to travel to the capital to study. The university population increased by 4 times, but they also let the community to use their facilities, provide courses for people in the neighborhood, and the girls of the NGO [puente posible] are always able to do their parties in colleges!!!
You described the transition from high school to college as hard, can you explain a little bit?
[It is hard] if the students of primary and secondary school are the children of parents who left primary or secondary school in the decades of 90 and 80, during the implementation of neoliberal policies that did nothing but destroy public education. In addition a large percentage of impoverished dropped out of school, uneducated and working overtime, and they became parents that could not join with their children's schooling. These students in turn had great difficulty learning the vulnerable product that their parents came.
University admission was a giant leap for those coming from parents neglected in previous decades, and with all the past barriers it did not impede students from returning to school.
What are the major complaints or problems seen with the school system? Both higher and secondary education?
The main problem is that families situated in the 90s are in popular sectors and were excluded for many years and it is seen in many cases the impossibilities of accompanying their kids to secondary or university education.
For more information and links:
h ttp://marcospaz.com.ar/?p=24459
A link to El Puente Posible Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/elpuenteposible?fref=ts