Following the former order of education in Argentina, the second stage
of primary education began with the educational bill submitted with
the approval of the President to the Federal Congress in August, 1918.
In this were incorporated changes of far wider scope than any ever
before projected. Not only primary education, but the entire fabric
of Argentine education was to be nationalized in content of courses,
in methods of instruction, and in special preparation of teachers for
tasks devolving on them under the new régime. The bill provided for
large development of industrial and vocational courses and called for
the use of materials peculiarly national and local. It laid stress upon
civic and patriotic training, in view of the heterogeneous constitution
of the Argentine population through steady streams of immigration
and the necessity of molding these diverse elements into a body of
patriotic and intelligent citizens. It provided for the establishment
of primary schools throughout the nation under more flexible financial
and administrative regulations than the old, for the segregation of
specific revenues for the exclusive use of the Ministry of Public
Instruction, and the consequent abolition of the old system of national
subsidies to individual localities. Especially in the fight against
illiteracy did the projected law embody progressive features. The
National Council of Education was empowered to establish standard
primary schools wherever there were as many as 20 illiterate children
of school age. In the message which accompanied the recommendation of
the law the President pointed out that the projected law tended to give
unity and stability to the several divisions of education under the
direction of the department of national instruction and adapted them to
the material progress of the nation and to latter-day civilization.
His identification of popular education with national progress
justifies a quotation at length:
As primary education was established by law in 1864, it contains
regulations which in reality have lost their original justification;
for Argentine civilization now demands urgent reforms in the matter of
general instruction in order to give greater consistency and reason
to the latter, and in order to make it more practical, more adaptable
to the various regional needs of the Republic. It is especially
urgent to carry its action to all the sections of the country not yet
reached by the system in order to arrive at the real aims of a truly
national education. Chief among these is to eradicate illiteracy,
the most patriotic task in which we can engage and the one upon
whose successful execution alone can any real national progress and
enlightenment rest.
The institutions of higher education have continued to develop in the
direction of autonomy and within the limit determined by the law of
1885; but with the primary, they demand modifications in the course
and arrangement of studies in order to abolish antiquated practices
and methods and to reach the level of the great modern universities of
the world.
Secondary instruction, in its turn, has lacked and still lacks a
law to fix it in definite form and to define its real character
in accordance with constitutional precepts and the nature of our
political institutions. It has existed subject to the continual
change of plans and regulations, harassed by the application of
widely varying educational conceptions, in a state of continuous
instability, and therefore reduced to a mere administrative mechanism
without power of initiative relative to its immediate needs and
without sufficient social influence to realize its true aims. To
remedy these evils and to fill these gaps is one of the purposes of
this law, in which the attempt has been made to include only that
which ought to be general and permanent. The primary aim of secondary
education should be to spread education among the towns and cities in
such a way that in all the country there shall be trained, educated
citizens fitted to play their part in the future civilization of the
country. Preparatory instruction has therefore been kept under the
control of the universities, which will fix their courses of study,
their duration, and their extension both general and special. Both the
plans of the preparatory courses, as well as those of the professions
taught in the faculties of the university, have been projected along
the lines already mentioned. The programs of the normal schools have
been formulated in accordance with the technical ideas which should
distinguish them, separating the general studies from those properly
called pedagogical or professional, arranging them so that the former
shall precede and the latter be intensified toward the end of the
course.
As regards practical subjects of instruction, the project outlines
only the general features according to which they must be taught.
Instruction will be imparted in accordance with the necessities of
the immediate field of each school, with special regard to natural
production, commerce, industries, and aptitudes of the population, all
with the purpose of adjusting anew the activities of the Argentine
youth, which has hitherto been by preference inclined toward the more
speculative studies rather than those of practical and of immediate
application. It is left to the authorities of technical education
to prepare plans and courses of study adapted to each class of
institutions.
Enrollment in all schools has been made absolutely free, a logical
consequence of compulsory education, which has as yet never been
effective, but which is an indispensible condition to placing all upon
the same plane of equality, a thing inherent in the principles of
republican institutions.
The Government considers that the power wielded by the nation to
spread primary education in the Provinces is so ample, in the form
established by this projected law, that the regulations in force
concerning financial subventions are without reason or justification.
Once the Provinces have complied with the duty imposed upon them by
the constitution in this regard up to the limit of their capacity the
accompanying responsibility of the Federal Government will disappear.
The executive, knowing the great value of the teaching profession
in the general concert of human activities, seeks every means
to establish and dignify the career of teacher, making it a
real profession surrounded by all the honors and all the public
considerations which it can legitimately claim. It is therefore sought
in the reform to fix proper conditions for different categories
of teachers, as well as a scale of salaries, and proportional and
periodic increase, thus guaranteeing the stability of the profession
and assuring it an honorable and tranquil retirement. With such aims
in view for the retirement of secondary teachers, the executive has
believed it equitable to establish similar lines of financial aid for
pensions and for increase of salaries as those offered to the teachers
of primary education.