The Importance of Education for Argentina’s Provincial Development

This article was also published in Infobae

Investment in human capital is proven to be one of the most profitable investments a company can make. The obstacle to this type of investment is usually that, although the long-term return is substantial, the social impact is not immediately visible.

This situation discourages investment by many governments in the region, as other sectors are considered more urgent, and as a result, educational progress, especially in relevance and quality, do not occur at the desired pace.

Some countries in the region, however, are setting out to transform this reality. One example is the Province of Jujuy, in northern Argentina, with a population of about 700,000 inhabitants and an enrollment rate of about 40%, which is tackling the main restrictions it faces in education.

Currently in Jujuy, 6 out of 10 children aged 3 and 4 do not attend pre-school; 45% of high school children fail the Aprender tests and 52% do not finish high school. The leading cause of dropout in girls is teenage pregnancy and child and adult care. In addition, in terms of relevance and quality, the province had until recently offered more than 100 outdated curricula, misaligned with the labor market, and still has outdated, bureaucratic, mutually incompatible and inefficient systems and procedures for providing quality educational services.

Faced with this problem, CAF—development bank of Latin America— is formulating, in line with sectoral policies at the regional and national level, the Access Improvement and Educational Quality Program (PROMACE), which aims to help reshape the productive matrix in the medium and long term, through reforms in provincial education through two specialized cross-section strategies in favor of vulnerable populations: early childhood care in families with teenage parents; and adolescents in rural areas. Additionally, the program addresses the main restrictions of quality and relevance through actions aimed at training faculty and principals, the updating of curricula, technological equipment and its use for learning, as well as access-focused activities, building new educational infrastructure and revamping of existing facilities, in the urban and peri-urban areas of the province, in an effort to impact all students. This comprehensive approach to the problem will not only improve local human development rates but aims to turn the Province into a technological hub underpinned by endogenous capabilities.

To circumvent access restrictions, PROMACE will build 103 schools: Fifteen of them are kindergartens within or near high schools in areas with high incidence of teenage pregnancy; 40 are ICT-mediated rural secondary schools, to meet the demand of children in rural areas who finish their primary education and have no way of pursuing further education; 8 are technology schools (agro-technical, renewable energy technical and lithium-based chemistry schools); and 40 are schools at all levels in the urban and peri-urban areas of the main cities of Jujuy, in order to serve all students.

As for quality and relevance, the province will implement a new curriculum matrix based on 13 guidelines agreed between the education sector, civil society and the private sector, and which prioritize areas of knowledge that are part of the new provincial productive matrix.  The strategy also prioritizes updating of technological equipment, and training of teachers and principals, incorporating novel methodologies such as peer training, which has proven very successful for the rapid incorporation of lessons (e.g. in medical contexts), in order to help develop skills on being, doing and learning required by today’s labor market.

One of the most powerful tools to reduce the region’s educational lag is to promote quality and relevance, to achieve greater development and generate more competitive opportunities for people and countries.

To establish quality and relevance on the public agenda of Argentina and Latin America, CAF is promoting investments aimed at the development of human capital, creating modern and innovative management systems in line with cutting-edge education policies, and reducing structural exclusion, which is part of the region’s economic and social poverty.