Only five jurisdictions planned
190 school days for primary schools in 2024
, thus respecting
the regulations agreed upon within the framework of the Federal Council of Education (CFE).
This floor, established as a commitment of all provinces, is above Law 25,864 of 2003,
which sets a legal minimum of 180 days
.
The report
“School Calendars 2024”
, produced by the Observatory of Argentines for Education, shows that although the average number of planned class days has increased over the years and now all 24 jurisdictions satisfy the law,
almost 80%
of They have an annual plan that falls short.
Corrientes (192), Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (190), Entre Ríos (190), Misiones (190) and Salta (190) are the only five jurisdictions that this year complied with the CFE federal agreement, which emerged in October 2021 with the aim of
“recovering learning”
after the pandemic.
These committed to comply with more than 190 planned class days, without accounting for holidays, vacations, other days and institutional days scheduled for 2024.
The remaining 19 provinces
did not manage to establish the same objective
, although it was enough for them to adjust to the mandatory nature of the law that speaks of 180 minimum days planned by the provincial ministries.
This
does not literally translate as actual days of class
, since this data is not public in Argentina and the 180 base days may be subject to unforeseen events.
These data emerge from the survey authored by Gustavo Zorzoli (former rector of the National School of Buenos Aires and president of the Educar en Ciencias Foundation), Martín Nistal and Leyre Sáenz Guillén (Observatorio de Argentinos por la Educación).
Precisely, Zorzoli is the one who expresses in dialogue with
Clarín
the “little flavor” conclusions of this report.
He assures that the trend is positive because “the average number of school days has increased, all jurisdictions comply with the planned 180 days,” but that “almost 80% of the jurisdictions
have not been able to comply with a self-imposed measure
.”
“The truth is that the provinces
should have counted the 190 days
, all of them.
In fact, this year there is one less than last year that complies with this,” says the educator, and it is true.
The same survey, in 2023, spoke of
6 jurisdictions
that had planned more than 190 school days.
They were not all the same as in 2024: Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (192), Buenos Aires (190), Chaco (190), Córdoba (190), Misiones (190) and Neuquén (190).
“Some provinces improved and others worsened.
There was a change of government and political party, so these changes may also have occurred.
The Ministers of Education from last year are not the same as those from now.
You have to think that this is a floor, that is, this is what was planned.
But sometimes a lot of things happen, and
we know that in many jurisdictions a very high percentage of school days has been lost
,” he comments, referring to the year 2023.
He clarifies that Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego were the two provinces in which the most days were lost last year, but that it also happened in Chubut, in Neuquén, in Misiones, in Río Negro, in La Rioja: “In all of those provinces I would say who missed between 20 and up to 40% of school days.
It's a barbarity".
Gustavo Zorzoli, former rector of the National of Buenos Aires and author of the report.
Photo: Andrés D'Elía
According to Zorzoli, it is clear that if the theoretical value of 190 days is not reached,
there is a risk of losing a large margin for various reasons
.
The main one, of course, is the union conflict, with the days of strike.
But there is also the time allocated to institutional sessions.
“Some don't tell you about the provincial holiday on the calendar, and you know it exists.
Or they count institutional days as class days, which in reality involve suspension from class.
The historical value – and I am talking about 20 years ago – was between 150 and 160 days of class,” she points out.
It stands out that in 2020, when the survey was carried out for the first time,
only 10 jurisdictions complied with the 180 days
of classes established by law, so the national average had been the planned 178 days.
That year, none reached 190 days.
In 2024, when discounting national and provincial holidays, the winter break and pedagogical days (if they are contemplated), the 24 jurisdictions comply with the planned 180 days, and
the national average is 187.
Zorzoli values the growth of planning over the years, but once again focuses on what must be improved in the future:
forecasting
.
He does not see possible obstacles that would prevent the provinces from complying with federal regulations, although he reflects on the complications that both the climate and the lack of infrastructure in the institutions represent.
“There are jurisdictions in which excessive heat or cold means that there are days when work cannot be done in schools.
This is closely linked to the lack of infrastructure, which
is one of the causes why our students miss school days
.
This is not accounted for anywhere because, unfortunately, we still do not have a digital nominal system that allows us to know day by day how many children have classes in the Argentine Republic.
It has already been planned for more than 10 years and governments have not been able to carry it out because
it would reveal what the educational reality is
”, he assures.
Regarding this, he elaborates that the pandemic could have served as “a milestone” to be clear that it was necessary to have the nominal system: “Exactly what happened to us is that we lost students that we could not recover because we did not have them identified, We didn't know where they were.
However, this happened in 2020, we are in 2024 and the nominal system is not yet universalized.”
P.S.