National Ministry of Culture and Education

Concrete actions

The transformation of education in Argentina is, a present, a process under way, which can be summed up into a series of concrete actions.

a A NEW structure of levels and cycles

A longer period of compulsory studies

The Federal Law of Education (1993) establishes 10 years of compulsory studies: one year of Initial Level for 5 year olds and 9 of General Basic Education. It transforms the old structure of six forms in primary school (starting at 6), and of 5 in secondary, into a new organization which begins at 5 years old, the last course of the initial level, goes on for nine years of General Basic Education (EGB), and finishes in three years of Multimodal Education.

General Basic Education (9 years)

The GBE is divided into three cycles of three years each, with clearly defined curricular, pedagogical and organizational characteristics. Multimodal Education designs two types of training. First a General Fundamented Training which ensures the acquisition of a nucleus of basic competences to all the students. these contents represent 50 % of the time-table of the level.

Second, an Orientated Training which stands of approximately 30 % of the time-table of the level and articulates with Differential Contents (20 %) which will be defined by institutions in projects relating the school with its background. The General Fundamented Training together with the Orientated Training allow the shaping of five Modalities as follows:

• Natural Sciences, Health and the Environment;

• Economics and Organization Management;

• Humanities and Social Studies;

• Productivity of Goods and Services;

• Arts, Design and Communication.

Technico-Professional Training

At the same time as the multimodal level, school can offer a Technico-Professional Qualification which enables the students to do specific tasks. According to its depth and length, which can be a full morning and afternoon shift and even one more year of studies, this circuit can qualify for the degree of "technician". This is not meant only for occupations related to industries but also to services and for all kinds of jobs requiring complex abilities and competences.

This new structure will gradually be applied, starting in 1996. The agreement with the Federal Council of Education fixes a deadline, leaving to each province the decision of the beginning and rhythm of carrying it out. According to this agreement, the new academic structure should be completed by the year 2000, reaching all the schools in the country.

b. NEW contents in all levels of education

Innovation of educational contents in an imperative and urgent process which has been tackled as one of the first steps in transformation.

This aspect tends to reach a deep transformation of the knowledge conveyed. Other approaches will be added (R&D), other fields (like the area of technology at initial level) and contributions from other disciplines (like Economics, Sociology; Computer Studies), all that to generate "basic competences" in the students.

Accompanying a descentralized but articulated education system, the contents of Argentine education are organized in three specific levels:

- Common Basic Contents (CBC): approved at the Federal Council of Culture and Education and compulsory all over the country.

- Provincial Curricular Designs: contextualize the CBC in terms of regional reality, establish the sequence and order of the contents, define the methodology and explain the criateria for promotion and crediting. They are in force in each provincial state.

- Institutional Educational Project (IEP): a project devised for each institution, which must guarantee and enrich what has been established at national and provincial levels, fostering at the same time, a suitable evaluation and revision. This level frames also the projects developed in the classroom by each teacher.

The Common Basic Contents for the Initial Level and for General Basic Education were approved at the XXII Extraordinary Assembly of the Federal Council of Culture and Education, on November 29th, 1994, by Resolution No 39/94. The multimodal Level Contents are being consulted at national level.

All through 1994 an open, plural and agreed process was dealt with, shared by teachers and technical teams, complemented by valuable consultancies and contributions from different sectors of society, the academic community and social, political and religious organizations.

Since 1995 the technical teams have been working on the curricular design for the new compulsory education which will be in force in 1997.

c. A NEW organization at the schools

A school of high quality, which is also democratic, participating, efficient, centred on learning and its actors' doings, supposes deep changes. To reach this objective, a permanent job with progressive further studies is required.

Since March 1994, the National Ministry of Culture and Education, together with all the educational authorities of the provinces, has been working on the NEW ARGENTINE SCHOOL PROGRAMME FOR THE XXI CENTURY, which includes a total of 1,355 schools of all levels and has been expanding to all the ones starting the first cycle of General Basic Education since 1996.

It deals with building a new school proposal which furthers the commitment only with the know hows and in involved in generating competences, supported by a new classroom proposal which, at the same time supposes a new way of supervising. Consequently, this programme includes actors at three levels:

• 200 supervisors

• 1.355 schools

• 33.760 teachers

• 393.640 students

are involved in the search of new organizational and management profiles shaping the new education.

The basic commitments refer to:

• the putting into practice of interactive learning;

• the flexible re-arrangement of times and spaces;

• working in teams at all instances;

• bearing responsibility for results;

• basing decisions on indicators of assessment.

d. A NEW relationship education employment

Technology is considered an articulating axis and a mediator for the bond education-employment at all levels of the education system. Technological literacy is a priority for an education system which aims at contributing to economic growth and sustained social development.

Technological education is an area of contents which starts at initial level. To overcome the stiffness of secondary level and integrate it in the processes of production and services Multimodal Education has been created.

Multimodal education offers thus, a training that, rather than qualifying for jobs and specialized productive activities, prepares students to perform at changing and heterogeneous employment scenes and to continue learning in different situations they may have to cope with.

The modalities of the multimodal are concerned with wide and different fields of production and services. The training for jobs is made through the technical-professional qualifications.

The National Institute of Technological Education (INET) was created to meet these challenges and to design national educational policies connecting the education system with the world of industries and services

But the connection education-employment is no longer defined as belonging to a particular type of school (technical or commercial), or level in the education system (secondary). The training of competences and basic attitudes for productive work is one of the commitments of all educational action in the new system.

e. A NEW priority to safeguard equity

Among the latest responsibilities the national government has assumed since the Federal Law of Education was passed, is the programming and financing of actions tending to fulfill the right of equal opportunities and possibilities in education, compensating regional and individual inequalities.

Educational Social Plan

Thus, the Educational Social Plan was born in 1993. At the Ministry of Education and Culture a set of programmes and projects were organized for schools all over the country. The had a pattern of team action which associated and articulated the capabilities of the Nation and the provinces together with the deep commitment of teachers all over the country to achieve the potential of the action and resources in benefit of the most underprivileged population.

The Educational Social Plan is part of the global policies of improvement of educational quality which is being carried out by the National Ministry of Culture and Education in the frame of state duties, to take care of the major educational needs although schools depend on provincial areas. Consequently, it is coherent with the programmes and projects connected to the transformation needed for the Federal Education Law.

The characteristics of the actions of the Educational Social Plan from its beginnings are:

• To strengthen the school's educational role.

• to decentralize the execution of actions.

• To promote great participation in the educational community.

• To focus the use of available resources on the most underprivileged sectors.

The purpose of the Educational Social Plan is put into practice through the development of two Compensatory Programmes. The first one, "Better Education For All", consists of:

Proyect 1: "Improving the Quality of Education".

Proyect 2: "Stimulus to Institutional Initiatives".

Proyect 3: "Development of Educational Computer Studies".

Proyect 4: "Promoting Alternative Proposals".

The second programme "Improvement of School Infrastructure", consists of:

Proyect 1: "Building classrooms".

Proyect 2: "Redecorating, Repairing and Expanding Educational Institutions".

Proyect 3: "Building Kindergarten rooms".

Proyect 4: "Improvement of Infrastructure Services at Educational Institutions".

During the period 1993-1995 the Educational Social Plan has assigned an investment of U$S 291.450.000 to schools all over the country. It reaches a total of 10.22 schools, 116.346 teachers and 2.123.401 students and covers 30 % of the country's primary schools.

f. A NEW teacher profile

A new educational proposal like the one introduced by the Federal Law of Education opens a space to recover the dignity of the teaching profession.
The Law legally sustains an innovative, transforming educational project which requires for is execution teachers and professors able to commit themselves to the basic principles of quality and equity.
A school which proposes improving the quality of teaching is closely connected to a change towards higher levels of professionalism.

A professional in education is someone who handless the background of knowledge basic for the performance of the functions of teaching and learning and at the same time, being able to take autonomous decisions, with independence, freedom and responsibility.

What is the teacher's role required in Argentina today?

A project of educational transformation that expects a school committed to quality and equity, states the need of teachers whose role is shown through their capacity to:

• obtain effective commitments in their relation to students, their families, the school and the community;

• produce changes in relation to themselves and their practice;

• assume the professionalism of their job.