The debt with education in Argentina during the years 2006 and 2020 accumulated the equivalent of 5% of the GDP of the year 2020 (3.4 trillion pesos or US$ 26,009 million, taking the dollar at $132.15 average of 2022). . A fact that, by itself, highlights the levels of disinvestment that have been registered in this area, regardless of political party. In this sense, if the Argentine State had wanted to pay the educational debt in one go that year, it should have almost doubled educational spending between the Nation and the provinces, bringing it to 11% of GDP that year.
The data comes from the report “The promised is (educational) debt. The impotence to reach 6% of GDP for education”, prepared by the Observatory of Argentines for Education, prepared by Mariano Narodowski (Torcuato Di Tella University), and Gabriela Catri and Martín Nistal (Observatory of Argentines for Education). More than a decade following the legal obligation to reach 6% of GDP, this document seeks to quantify the educational debt in Argentina, as a result of non-compliance with the goal between 2006 and 2020 (latest data available).
Only in the years 2009, 2013 and 2015 was the investment percentage established opportunely reached. 2015 was the year with the highest budget execution in terms of GDP, reaching 6.1%. “Throughout four presidential terms, the annual investment in education in Argentina has not reached 6% except in the years 2009, 2013 and 2015. The distance between the investment objective set by the Legislative Power in 2005 and 2006 and the Executed spending allows us to calculate the liability between what is said and what is done,” reflected Mariano Narodowski, professor at the Torcuato Di Tella University and co-author of the report.
“The work raises the concurrent responsibility of governments of different political sign and levels of government (because 6% of educational spending adds to the national government with the jurisdictional ones) and, underlyingly, the need to think regarding alternative mechanisms that ensure a adequate financing of the sector”, said, for his part, Juan Doberti, PhD in Economic Sciences, professor and researcher at the UBA. And he added: “The problem raised becomes even more relevant if one takes into account that, even in the years in which the percentage stipulated by law was met, the educational system raised problems of coverage, efficiency and quality and that the educational massification will presumably require , mechanisms for obtaining more resources and for their better use”.
The three years with the highest debt owed to education were: 2019 ($841 billion), 2018 ($751 billion), and 2020 ($570 billion). In 2010, added to this three-year period, they constitute 68.4% of the total Argentine educational debt.
“The report shows that the agreement to prioritize educational financing reached in 2005 had less impact than expected in the three decades since that date. The organization of this financing between the national government, the provincial administrations and the educational institutions requires the consolidation of agreements in which the contributions to be made by each party and the commitments assumed for the generation of improvements are defined. The results-oriented agreements established by the Educational Financing Law are a good instrument to promote improvement in quality and inclusion. It is important to secure investment in education adequately and persistently as a necessary condition to leverage sustainable development”, reflected Javier Curcio, a graduate in Economics and researcher at IIEP Baires and UBA-Conicet.
“It should be noted that, during the course of the analyzed period, Argentina (and almost all of the provincial jurisdictions) maintained different situations regarding the fiscal deficit. This means that the Argentine educational debt is not the product of strict fiscal discipline in favor of which education spending is sacrificed, but rather the decision not to channel resources to meet the established goal of 6% of GDP for education,” he concluded. Mariano Narodowski.
Debt in numbers
◆ In 15 years, a debt of $3.4 trillion was accumulated with education, which is equivalent to 5% of GDP in 2020, that is, approximately the educational investment in one year.
◆ 68.4% of this divestment occurred in four years: 2010 and the 2018-2020 triennium.
◆ Between 2006 and 2020, the target for spending on education as a percentage of GDP established by law was only met on three occasions.
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