Overview of Education System

Argentina has a federal education system. During the 1990s, school administration was transferred from the national government to state governments.^2,3,4 Still, the national government plays an important role in defining and funding educational policies and targeted programs.

Public school curricula, budgets, and policies are determined by state governments. Argentina comprises the autonomous City of Buenos Aires and 23 provinces, each of which has responsibility for funding and managing its own educational system. The decision making process at the school level is highly centralized with limited autonomy for principals in selecting teachers, deciding curricula, and administering budgets.^5,6,7 Public schools are funded by city budgets and provide free education at the prekindergarten, kindergarten, primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, including that at the university level in undergraduate programs.

Private schools are granted more pedagogical autonomy but still required to follow state curriculum standards, and are free to determine their own staffing policies. Families pay for private education, although in some cases (especially in primary and secondary schools) the state provides financial aid through a subsidy scheme designed to help finance teacher salaries, wholly or partially.

Education is compulsory throughout Argentina from prekindergarten (age 4) to the completion of secondary school. The Buenos Aires education system is organized as four levels:

Early childhood education comprises prekindergarten and kindergarten and serves children from 45 days to 5 years old
Primary education comprises Grade 1 (age 6) to Grade 7 (age 12)
Secondary education spans five or six years depending on the track and is divided into two cycles: a three year basic cycle and a second cycle of three to four years, organized by subject discipline or vocational path
Tertiary education comprises technical or professional education, including basic teacher education programs

When PIRLS 2016 was administered there were 879 primary schools in Buenos Aires, as shown in Exhibit 1.

Exhibit 1: Enrollment in Prekindergarten, Kindergarten, Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Schools in the City of Buenos Aires in 2015⁸

	Level of Education	Sector		Total
		Public	Private
Number of Schools	Prekindergarten and kindergarten^*	219	468	687
	Primary	457	422	879
	Secondary	150	338	488
	Tertiary	55	198	253
Enrollment	Prekindergarten and kindergarten^*	35,112	40,895	76,007
	Primary	145,214	136,437	281,651
	Secondary	90,878	93,477	184,355
	Tertiary	41,219	62,922	104,141

^{*For children ages 4 and 5}

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Overview of Education System