Buenos Aires, Jul 4 (EFE).- Argentine President Javier Milei launched a national literacy plan on Thursday in a country where seven out of ten children do not understand what they read, which will increase the amount of resources for the provinces in line with the demands on teachers and students.
“It is time to join forces between the national government, provincial governments and society, and to choose once more this pillar (literacy) which is the support point of the entire educational system,” said Milei in a speech in the province of San Juan (northwest).
The “heart” of the plan is “to give resources and tools to teachers, and to raise the bar for both teachers and students,” Milei explained, standing at a lectern.
The plan consists of “training all teachers in literacy,” “giving resources to the provinces” to train them, “evaluating teachers” from the national government, “providing incentives” so that the best teachers go to teach in schools with the worst literacy indicators, explained the president.
“We are going to assess students more and from an earlier age to identify reading and writing shortcomings before it is too late,” said Milei, because today the Aprender assessments are given starting in sixth grade and they will be introduced earlier starting in third grade.
The libertarian president proposed a “change in educational culture” to differentiate himself from the Kirchnerist administrations, both current and those of former presidents Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), Cristina Fernández (2007-2015) and Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).
“We are not going to be complacent regarding illiteracy,” he said, because that “is what brought us here.”
“We need to recover the value of demanding and seeking excellence,” he said.
“Requirement is good, not bad; evaluation is good, not bad. Let’s be clear: evaluation is not stigmatizing,” said Milei, unlike Kirchnerism, but rather “evaluation is the best tool” to understand whether students are developing their skills and meeting teaching standards.
“Refusing to evaluate students is losing faith in them,” he said.
The statistics detailed by Milei speak of half of the primary school students not reaching the reading comprehension level appropriate for their age, a figure that climbs to 70% in sixth grade, “therefore, it is not surprising that, given this flaw in the foundation, only 54% of those who enter secondary school graduate, and less than 2 out of 10 do so on time and in the correct manner.”
Milei recalled that Argentina was one of the first countries in the world to eliminate illiteracy and is the country in the region with the most Nobel Prizes, while she recalled former president Domingo Sarmiento (1811-1888), born in San Juan and recognized for promoting education during his administration (1868-1874).
In Argentina, schooling is compulsory for children from the age of four and throughout primary and secondary education (up to the age of 18).
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2024-07-06 19:53:27
