Secondary Education in Argentina: A Winding Road

Abstract

This paper is aimed at exploring the state of the secondary education in Argentina, with special emphasis on the different changes and approaches of inclusive education public policies introduced in the last years. Argentina has been experiencing profound changes in relation to the population groups with access to the different educational levels, presenting painful differences in the quality and effectiveness of education given in different population and geographic sectors. Secondary education in Argentina is currently the educational level on which all eyes are focused. On the one hand, due to the progressive obligatoriness, but to a greater extent a large number of secondary school age population are effectively excluded from the possibility of exercising the right to quality education. The paper tries to examine, through an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the Argentinian educational system, what are the critical points of inflection where to incorporate elements of innovation to achieve better quality and inclusion standards in a country marked by deep levels of inequality in the access and quality of education in its different population groups. The research has been conducted through a descriptive methodology, using quantitative and qualitative analysis of primary and secondary sources. It is set on a bibliographical review based on reports and studies of recent publications, coming from official, national, and international public institutions. The paper aims to be a first step in a diagnostic analysis of Argentinian education, but in a comparative manner, contrasting indicators and local indexes with international and regional trends in the subject. The main results point out that a deep transformation of the secondary school is needed, in such a way as to respond to the many signs of inequality, fragmentation and poor quality of the most vulnerable population groups.