It goes against the rights of minors to be educated and not to work. Disregards the idea that people under 18 years of age are subjects with full rights. These were some of the arguments that based the strong rejection of the opposition and education specialists to the statements of Alberto “Bertie” Benegas Lynch who yesterday argued that education should not be compulsory and suggested that parents can make their children work instead of sending them to school.
“I don’t believe in compulsory education.“, he claimed Bless Lynchson of whom President Javier Milei considers his “hero” and national deputy of Freedom Advances through the province of Buenos Aires.
He considered that it is “the responsibility of the parents” and that the State should not intervene. “You want to give your son the best and many times it can happen, and especially in Argentina, you cannot afford to send your son to school because you need him in the workshop with his father working,” he said. in an interview with Romina Manguel on FM Milenium. “How is the State going to decide about the boy? “I can’t think of such an invasive thing,” he said.
Guillermina Tiramonti, researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Flacso), considered: “Benegas Lynch launches fireworks at the stands to be seen. Argentina opted for compulsory education at the end of the 19th century and we have maintained that principle until today. What society should discuss is not Lynch’s provocations but how to get the system out of the decline it was left in after 20 years of the K administration.”
“I don’t talk stupid things“was the resounding response from Mariano Narodowskiacademic associated with the Observatory of Argentines for Education, in response to the consultation of THE NATION.
“It’s crazy. I don’t think it should even be discussed, but it should not be underestimated or underestimated either. It is not decontextualized from other public policies: the discussion about indoctrination and who has to provide educational resources, the fight with public universities and governors. Behind it there is an objective that has to do with the installation of a narrative that carries out a discussion about whether we all have the right to education, in a government that considers the cultural battle as an objective,” he analyzed. Flavio Buccinoteacher and specialist in educational management.
And he added: “Since the end of the 29th century, the need for compulsory education was raised because it was necessary to incorporate the children of immigrants to build citizenship. Mandatory does not guarantee quality, but it builds a different dynamic, a base from which to start, a possibility of improvement, the platform that a society has thinking about the improvement of future generations. True liberals thought so.”
The concept of obligation expanded over time. Julio Argentino Roca, whom liberals often praise, was the one who signed and promulgated Law 1420, passed in 1884, which established common, free and compulsory primary education..
against the law
Benegas Lynch’s approach also goes against the current legal framework. The National Education Law No. 26,206 establishes compulsory education from the age of four to the completion of secondary school. While, Law No. 26,390 prohibits child labor in Argentina.
Additionally, there is the Convention on the Rights of the Child – the international instrument ratified by 196 countries, with the exception of the United States – that protects the right of minors against economic exploitation and the performance of any work that may be dangerous or hindering. their education.
Alejandro Morduchowicza specialist in Educational Planning, noted: “The lightness of these statements is surprising. Obligation did not emerge as a right but as a necessity of the capitalist system itself. The benefits that education generates not only for those who receive it, but for the rest of society (called “positive externalities” in economic jargon) led to the States being the ones to finance it, make it mandatory and regulate it.”.
THE NATION tried to contact the Ministry of Education led by Carlos Torrendell To know your position on Benegas Lynch’s statements, but at the closing of this note there was no response. Meanwhile, official spokespersons for the Ministry of Human Capital –to whom the secretariat depends and in charge of Sandra Pettovello– They differed.
“Compulsory education was proposed in the context of liberal humanist thought precisely to promote the freedom of minors supervised by adults.. This allows children to educate themselves, broadening their horizons, to develop their own life project in the context of increasingly complex cultures, which makes comprehensive literacy essential. It is true that compulsory education has often led to indoctrination or ideological monopoly. But false solutions should not follow from this that fall into other absolutisms, such as that of parents over their children.“, they indicated.
“The State has to regulate and promote the educational freedom of the entire society, limiting itself and limiting the abuse of power by other agents. And families and civil society promote non-formal and formal education to expand the spheres of human freedom,” they closed.
“The ideas of Benegas Lynch represent the path of decadence of Argentina without education. In a country with 60% child poverty, efforts must be made to agree once and for all how we are going to get education out of the enormous crisis it is in. I have no doubt that society, regardless of social condition, considers that education is the basis for personal development and the country as a whole,” he considered. Monica MarquinaConicet researcher in charge of the Education teams of the Alem Foundation.
Delicate educational situation
There are plenty of figures that illustrate the delicate educational situation. Only 13 out of every 100 students completed their 12 years between primary and secondary level in the expected time (without repeating or abandoning) and with satisfactory knowledge of language and mathematics, according to a report from the Observatory of Argentines for Education.
The latest results of the PISA tests show that seven out of ten Argentine students do not achieve the minimum level of performance in mathematics. Meanwhile, in reading and science, five out of ten did not reach basic levels.
Only in three countries – Bhutan, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands – education is not compulsory. “The world understands that education must be compulsory”he tweeted German Lodolaformer Secretary of Educational Evaluation and Information during the government of Alberto Fernández.
“And the world understands that the more years of compulsory education the better, as in Argentina“added the political scientist who provided his own statistics prepared with indicators updated to September 2023 by the World Bank and UNESCO. According to these, initial, primary and secondary education is compulsory in 14.1% of 195 countries, in 24.5% only primary education and in 61.3% of countries primary and secondary education.
The former Minister of Culture during the Cambiemos administration, Pablo Avelluto, tweeted: “My dad had to start working when he was 8 years old. Born in 1938 and the only son of a single mother, there was no alternative in his house. Sadly, he passed away many years ago. If he were alive, he would go trump the ignorant deputy to tell you what child labor is all about.”
The deputy Marcela Campagnoli (We Make Federal Coalition) summarized: “That is, you endorse child labor and that only the elites are educated”.