Six proposals to change the educational reality

Argentina is going through a real crisis of education, it is useless to deny it. Here are six proposals that would allow the government to take the initiative in the face of a crisis that it inherited and has the responsibility to reverse.

It is necessary that society internalize the educational urgency, the first proposal goes in this direction. TheAssessments are the key to the realm, but school-level results need to be publicly known.. It is therefore essential, as asked the President in Congress, to amend Article 97 of Law 26206, which provides: "The policy of disseminating information about the results evaluations will preserve the identity of institutions (…) education, in order to avoid any form of stigmatization ".

Stigma? Of course, the identity of students and teachers must be preserved, but not that of educational institutions. Amend Article 97 would awaken parents, allow them to see the reality, to make them react. His indignation would give the government the necessary support to confront the teachers' unions, the most ardent supporters of the status quo.

The second proposal is to allow something apparently as basic as children to go to school. Faced with the blind recourse to unemployment as an element of trade union pressure, education must be transformed into public service. Several years ago, in 2014, when the administration of Daniel Scioli had to deal with a long sequence of work stoppages, Lt. Governor Gabriel Mariotto proposed a similar initiative. in 2017, Guillermo Castello, MLA for Cambiemos, also did it. A law transforming education into an essential public service would defend the right of the weakest, our children, who can not take the necessary steps to do so.

In 1995, Steve Jobs said in an interview with the Smithsonian Institution: "I do not believe in the equality of results, but I really believe in equal opportunities, equal opportunities for me means above all an excellent education ". Uruguay has legislation in accordance with this badessment reproduce it in our country is the third proposal.

Let's look briefly at the path Uruguayan legislation facilitates the operation of free and private schools, funded by contributions from companies or individuals, which receive no state subsidies. and provide secondary education to adolescents living below the poverty line, achieving excellent academic results.

Its funding is possible thanks to Article 78 of Law 18.083 / 2006 and its amendment, Article 269 of Law 18.834 / 2011 (summary): "The donations that the taxpayers of the l 39; Income tax and wealth tax pay The entities listed in the following article (example: private institutions aimed at primary or secondary education serving the most disadvantaged populations ) will receive the following benefit: 75% of the amount will be charged as payment for the taxes mentioned The remaining 25% may be charged for tax purposes as an expense of the corporation. "

Legislation such as that of Uruguay would demonstrate that it is possible to increase demand and educational outcomes while reducing desertion, even in clearly adverse social contexts. Is not this a reason enough to reproduce it?

Let's see the fourth of the proposals. It is well known that Argentina is an infamous case as no system has been set up to badess the level of knowledge of high school students before they enter university. As Alieto Guadagni points out, It is not known in the world of law on universities such as Law 27204, which prohibits any type of exam aimed at stimulating the entrance to the university of well-prepared students. This article stipulates that "all students who pbad secondary education can enter freely and without restriction into higher education at the level of higher education".

In Argentina, it is usual to enter our universities with little preparation and without any effort. Of course, failure is predictable. The badessment at the end of secondary is carried out in all the countries imagined by the reader. Can the rest of the world be wrong? It is clear that no.

The amendment to Law 27204 would avoid deceiving thousands of young people who are losing precious years of their lives to study that will never succeed, instead of preparing to successfully enter the job market.

This fact motivates the fifth of the propositions: to cope with the unemployment crisis of our young people through the so-called double education system, from Germany. In the dual system, the student spends many hours gaining work experience in companies even before graduation from high school. Over the years, the student increases the time spent in the company and reduces it to the school. An adaptation of the dual system to our reality would not only help to integrate thousands of potentials into the productive society, but would also facilitate the acquisition of human capital that would allow them to develop successfully.

The last proposal does not focus on the education of children but on that of millions of adult beneficiaries of social schemes. Projects should not be seen as a right but rather as a punishment: the chronization of poverty. How to reintegrate them into society? Juan Pablo II had suggested many years ago: "This possibility only materializes if the worker reaches a certain degree of education, culture and vocational training".

In 2018, the government of Mauricio Macri has taken an important step in the right direction by replacing three programs with a new plan called "Haciendo Futuro", which is based on two central axes: the compulsory formal education, whereby the beneficiaries must complete their secondary education and integral training, which will train them through courses and professional practices.

It is essential to generalize it. Require that each beneficiary, regardless of their social regime, must comply with similar requirements becoming eligible for the grant would facilitate their reintegration into the productive society. No one, under working conditions, should have access to the grant to not comply with this requirement. Otherwise, Argentina is becoming a clbad society where an educated elite maintains a permanent clbad of unemployed. A fiscally unsustainable and ethically reprehensible scenario.

Six proposals, some very simple to implement, others more daring. Some of them would allow Mauricio Macri's government to begin to reverse an education crisis that threatens to destroy the future of our country. I hope this note will help to open a healthy debate, our children deserve it.

The author is Rector of the University of CEMA and member of the National Academy of Education. The opinions expressed are personal and not they necessarily represent the opinion of the UCEMA