Fewer students and more teaching positions, disparate relationship in public elementary schools

The primary level of state management faces a paradox: between 2003 and 2017, it lost 236,099 students while it won 46,624 positions.

teachers

. Each time, there are more teachers and fewer children in the country's public clbadrooms. The ratio, in the national average, corresponds to one teaching position for 12 students. And despite the possibility of almost personalized teaching, learning rates are low.

A study by Francisco Boero, from the Center for the Study of Education in Argentina (CEA) of the University of Belgrano, based on data from the 2003 and 2007 statistical yearbooks and the Ministry of Education. National Education, reveals interesting curiosities. For example, in Catamarca, in the 14 years studied, the number of students decreased by 27%, but the number of teaching positions increased by 44%. In Salta, where there was only one difference of eight more students in primary school, the number of teaching positions increased by 59% during this period.

During the same period, if you look at the country's total average, the privately run primary school increased by 35% in number of students and by 28% in teaching positions. This relationship is most impressive in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. Between 2003 and 2017, there was a 42% growth of students in privately run private clbadrooms and only 2% of teaching positions.

In the private sector, the clbadroom ratio is 17 students per teaching position, while at the state level, there are 12 children per teaching position. Catamarca, for example, has a teaching position for six students.

"The private sector is growing in a more uniform and rational way," believes Francisco Boero, saying that the best quality of teaching "would not be directly related to the number of teachers per student, because national and international tests have carried out in the country, they confirm it. "

If we compare the pupil / teacher ratio in public primary schools, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea have an average of 17 students per teaching post; Russia, the United Kingdom and France have 20 boys per teacher; Brazil and Chile, 21 per professional; Colombia, 24 years old and Mexico, 27 years old.

The imbalance occurs in all districts, although in some provinces, the increase in the number of teachers, despite the student flight, may be related to the extension of the school day and the need to create more posts for meet this need. For example, in Cordoba, where nearly 40% of schools already have a double day, the number of pupils in these 14 years has increased from 284,561 to 259,545, but teaching posts have increased by 19%. from 16,020 to 19,115.

The number of students has increased only in four provinces and primary schools in the interior of Buenos Aires: Santa Cruz is at the top of this modest list: its numbers have increased by 41%, pbading from 377 to 35711; Mendoza, 7% (from 176,755 to 188,787); the interior of Buenos Aires, 5% (431,703 to 452,809); Tierra del Fuego, 4% (from 13,087 to 13,585); Chubut, 3% (from 52,111 to 53,462) and Rio Negro, 1% (from 69,092 to 70,115).

Significant increase

On the other hand, when looking at teaching positions, 18 of the 18 provinces recorded very large increases. Tierra del Fuego had the highest growth: 61% (903 to 1458); followed closely by Salta, 59% (9 173 to 14 621); Santa Cruz, 58% (2122 to 3348) and La Rioja, 49% (3010 to 4477).

In the only region where no teaching post has been created, it is in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. Its percentage is zero and between 2003 and 2017, 177 fewer jobs were verified, while the decline in the number of students was 9% (from 696,470 to 733,856).

"Argentina currently records a relationship between students and teaching positions significantly lower than that of most Latin American countries." The same goes when the comparison is made with countries. industrialized countries with a level of education superior to ours, "said Alieto Guadagni. director of the CEA and member of the National Academy of Education.

In his opinion, "this indicates that the merely quantitative increase of teaching staff is not enough to improve the education system, because it is also essential to strengthen the academic and professional training of new teachers who join [al sistema] year after year".

In this sense, Boero said that "nations that have progressed rapidly in the quality of their education have done so by improving the preparation of new teachers, with a complete academic career hierarchy and also, as indicated by the The experience of Ecuador, Finland and South Korea, aiming to ensure that today's best secondary students are the teachers of tomorrow, as this also implies that the teaching profession fully recognized and with better levels of remuneration ".