A priority and a diagnosis: the fact that secondary school is the last educational level that the majority of young people in Argentina go through makes it a strategic institution for the development of the country.
However, in a context marked by structural inequalities and a generalized impoverishment of the young population, secondary schools find it difficult to provide tools for young people to build their life project.
Only two out of every ten students who enter the primary level reach the last year of secondary school in the expected theoretical time and with satisfactory learning in Language and Mathematics, at the same time that seven out of ten young people obtain the secondary degree.
So what can we do to transform the secondary?
Three proposals.
1) The early warning system (SAT) is a tool that uses the information produced by schools to monitor the trajectories of students in order to trigger alerts against the risk of dropout.
The daily records that schools keep on each and every one of their students are of great value in preventing school exclusion: class attendance, grades, socio-emotional condition, context in which they live, educational level of their mother and father, among others.
This information, digitized and returned to schools in a systematic way, allows prioritizing the attention of students with more critical situations and deploying actions that strengthen their schooling.
In 2023, Mendoza and Entre Ríos will implement, with the support of CIPPEC, the first phase of the SAT at the secondary level.
2) The extension of the school day consists of adding two hours a day to the day to reinforce fundamental learning, accompany the school trajectories of those who are at risk of dropping out and facilitate the transition to the world of work.
In order to equalize opportunities, this action would make it possible to dedicate more school time to, for example, Mathematics, Language and English;
tutoring instances;
cultural and sports activities that respond to their interests in other environments (clubs, cultural centers, popular libraries).
3) The articulation of secondary school with the world of work requires settling a false opposition between education and training for work and recognizing the place that paid work has in people's opportunities to build their life project.
The knowledge necessary to integrate into the world of work must have a real place in what is taught at school.
For this, it is possible, on the one hand, to incorporate content related to the world of work into existing subjects and/or create new curricular spaces within the framework of the extension of the day.
Another advance would be to create a system of professional practices for oriented secondary schools, led from the educational system.
An agreement.
A transformation of this type requires a pact in the terms that the pedagogue Juan Carlos Tedesco once pointed out: "For this educational pact to make sense, it must be in tune with a development strategy that pursues objectives of productive transformation and social equity."
Therefore, it is necessary to convene the educational community, but also the productive sector and civil society.
The success lies in not remaining in the mere consensus on objectives, but in advancing in agreements on the implementation strategy and in the necessary resources to sustain it.
Within this framework, there is an irreplaceable responsibility of the State, which must be willing to face the challenges that education presents and the debts that democracy owes to young people.
Director of Education of CIPPEC
look too
Early Warning Systems: A Strategy for Secondary School
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