This is the story of education in Argentina. All public education is free for students, and there is no age limit for students in secondary or tertiary schools.
The first thing that jumps out at a US teacher when visiting schools is the
turno system. There are not enough schools in Argentina so one building must operate for multiple sessions in order to educate all of the children. There are three
turno sessions: morning, afternoon, and evening. The same school building may function as a primary, secondary, and tertiary school throughout the course of the day, or may hold three sessions of the same level.
Teachers are not assigned to a particular school but rather must gather periods throughout the county. Periods are chosen by rank order, those with the most credits having first choice. Credits are earned through years of experience and professional development or higher education. Teachers must have 36 class periods a week to be considered full-time. During my two week tenure I did not meet any teachers who exclusively worked in one school or at one time. Rather, they typically worked in 3-4 schools in at least 2
turnos.
There are three levels of public education in Argentina: primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary level functions much like elementary education in America. The students have only a couple of teachers throughout the day, and receive basic instruction in math, geography, history, Spanish language, and sciences. Schools are local, with no provided transportation. Primary school is 6 or 7 years, depending on the secondary program in use.
Secondary schools are quite different than in the United States. Students are assigned to a classroom and stay there for the course of the
turno. Teachers float in for a class. The
turno is divided into six classes and classes are grouped together into three modules with breaks in between. A student rarely has 6 different subjects in a day because of the way teachers float. Often two periods, or even three, are the same subject. Classes do not meet daily and seem to vary from 1-2 times a week. Breaks are typically 10 minutes, during which the students are watched by monitors while teachers retreat to a tiny workroom that is no more than a table and a few chairs. During breaks students visit a snack bar or hang out in the hallways. Bells signal the end of breaks and classes.
There are two systems of organization at secondary school. The first is a simple years 1-5 system, the equivalent of our grades 8-12. This is the old system and is coming back into practice. The current system in most schools, however, is a general curriculum for years 1-2 called EGB, and then years 1-3 of polimodal, which focuses students on either a science or humanities track.
The number of students assigned per class is quite large, however only two months into the school year it had shrunk to numbers comparable or even smaller than typical US classes due to truancy. One class of 60 had only 18 attendees. Efforts are being made to stop such significant drop out rates.
The first sign of this was the Colegio Secundario, a night school session for older students who worked during the day. Most arrived tired, without supplies, or with a poor attitude. A sandwich was provided mid-way through the evening since many students came straight from work with no time to eat. Though students lacked effort, simply the fact that they were attending was a sign that the school was succeeding somewhat.
Another way to keep students in school seems to have more detrimental effects than advantages. Administrators in the district have taken a “do not scare them away” approach, a “keep the students happy and they will come” attitude. This transfers into the way teachers interact with students. Bells ring to signal the start of classes or the end of breaks but students make no move to leave the halls and go into classrooms. They wander in for up to 10 minutes after the bell. Teachers are not allowed to discipline late students or refuse them entry. The same holds true for students who are disruptive or disrespectful during the class period. This creates constant interruptions in classes. Students who chose not to do work are not penalized unless they perform poorly on exams. Teacher also cannot force students to work, as that might cause them to stop coming. When teachers have tried this, parents complained to administration that their children did not enjoy the class, and teachers were told to back down. When homework was assigned during my two weeks of observation, it was usually not done. This has created an atmosphere where there is extreme disrespect for the teacher with no consequence for bad behavior. Much of the classes are repetition of previous learned material.
Students who are doing poorly often stop coming and start fresh again the next year. Because there is no age limit for public education, it was not uncommon for people in their mid-20s to still be attending secondary school classes.
In addition to drop outs there is also the problem of new students. Because it is close to the Bolivian border and the farms that surround Ledesma provide work for a constant flow of migrant workers, it is not uncommon for there to be two or three new students a week in a class. Some stay for the year but most attend only a few months and then move on. Each time there are new students teachers must spend significant time catching them up, to the deterrent of the rest of the class.
Because school buildings are used by multiple
turnos, there is absolutely no after school activity at school. Teachers do not give extra help to students, and there are no clubs or sports teams practicing after classes have ended. There is also little sense of school pride or loyalty. Schools are covered in grafitti, some of which incredibly inappropriate for a building that is used by primary students. Students write their names on everything- walls, boards, desks, bathrooms, - with permanent markers and white-out pens. There is gum under desks and in cracks in the wall. Classrooms are kept as clean as possible, swept between every turno, but it is obvious that there is little respect or ownership of the buildings.
Being used by multiple turnos also means that classrooms cannot be decorated. In other countries where students stay in one room but teachers rotate, the walls are covered with student work. In Argentina, the only student projects on display were posters in the halls celebrating the bicentennial that occurred in May. The classroom walls were blank except for the graffiti. It gave the buildings an institutional feel, emphasized by the bars on the windows and the flickering fluorescent lights.
Tertiary education is similar to the US university system, though it remains free for all students who wish to attend. It is strictly focused on skill development for a specific field- there is no general education. Students attend a school dedicated to a particular field: economic sciences, the
profesorado for teacher training, medicine, law, etc. This level also suffers high drop out rates and there were students who were repeating the classes for the third time after failing twice before.
My work with Alicia took me to four schools: Calilegua, Fraile, Colegio Secondario in Libertador, and the Profesorado for English Teachers.
Calilegua is a small town north of Libertador. The school is a simple one story structure with classes on either side of one long hallway with a large covered gymnasium and outdoor basketball court. Alicia’s class here is a group who are repeating first year. They were completely unmotivated and spent most of the class making fun of each other at the back of the room. One day they all skipped school- we arrived and had no class. Another day the school was closed because the well ran dry and there was no water.
Fraile is a larger town south of Libertador. This school building was more impressive, with a grand foyer and two levels of classrooms. It is five years old and aside from the graffiti was in good condition. The school used the polimodal system. Alicia taught three classes there, all first year. One class stood out as being particularly motivated: students answered questions, attempted to speak in English, volunteered to write on the board, and worked without much prompting. Of the other two, the afternoon class seemed average and the evening class more interested in talking than working.
At the Colegio Secondario, Alicia taught two night classes. One was second year, the other first. Her first year class made almost no progress. She repeated the same lesson three classes in a row because students could not remember. The second year class was more interested but were clearly exhausted, meeting 10:30 – 11:20.
The profesorado was specifically to train English teachers. Classes are taught fully in English. Students attend for four years and then get licensed to teach. Alicia teaches two British history/society and literature classes. They are both teaching the content and how to break it down and teach it to students. The profesorado does not belong to any school and must rent space in a school building. Students come from throughout the district to attend training classes.
I think that's everything. Obviously there's some bias in my thoughts here, but I've tried to get down as much as possible, because I'm sure I'll forget a lot soon.
