Early Childhood Education in Argentina within a Latin American Perspective

ABSTRACT

In Latin America the development of early childhood education has been uneven and mixed. In some countries, the public education system includes kindergartens (for 4 to 6 year olds), early childhood schools (for children from birth to 5/6), nurseries (from birth to 3) schools and/or playschools. Working days vary in length, with daytime and late-afternoon shifts. This paper aims to analyze a range of factors, including: the role of the State in ensuring the right to education, as provider and/or as a regulatory body; the role of social and political actors; gender issues; how children and childhood are understood in each society; current laws and whether they are enforced. In Argentina, during periods of deep economic crises, such as that of the late 90s which is being traumatically repeated today, there is an infantilization of poverty. This means most of the poor are children, and most children are poor. Describing the limits and possibilities of early education in Argentina today, within a Latin American perspective, presents the political and pedagogical challenge of thinking about the present while also imagining possible changes in the relationships between childhood, equality and education; not just as a rhetorical exercise, but as an investment in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Equality
• inequality
• early childhood
• early education
• latin America
• Argentina

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The use of the term Latin American was introduced in the 19th century to name a region which historically was subject to projects of colonial and imperialist conquest and expansion. This term is still an object of tension due to its anti-colonialist and liberation meanings.

2. In Argentina, female jails reproduce in an intensified way the same gender inequality present in society. At around twenty federal prisons, the situation is worsened by the fact that children under four live with their incarcerated mothers under the same conditions of imprisonment. Data about incarceration at Correctional Facility 33 were repeatedly reported by the Provincial Commission on Memory, Commission against Torture, between 2006 and 2011 (Molinari and Brena 2018).

3. Non monetary deprivation analysis considers a variety of issues which define poverty in terms of the violation of rights during childhood and adolescence, including: education, social protection, proper housing, basic sanitation, access to safe water and safe habitat. Data show that poverty among people under 18 years old reaches 48%, 10 points above the level for the general population (38%). This means that 6.3 million children are denied opportunities for the effective execution of their rights (UNICEF 2018).

4. Data from September 2019 in the Catholic University of Argentina’s ‘Barómetro de Deuda Social’, show that the social situation went out of control in the last months. The latest ‘Barómetro de Deuda Social’ report reveals three dreadful facts. Firstly, it notes that in Argentina 51.7% of children and adolescents are poor; the highest level in ten years. Secondly, that numbers soared to 63.6% in the Buenos Aires conurbation. Thirdly, 29.3% of children are affected by food deficit, and 13% suffered from hunger in 2018.

Attendance at children’s soup kitchens reached 35%, according to UCA. Food aid programs which used to serve just milk and snacks have turned into real and proper soup kitchens, and soup kitchens have started giving away ready-to-eat meals because they are swamped. Many families have nothing to eat.

5. In 2019, Argentina’s Education Workers Central Union (CTERA), the biggest teacher’s union in the country, reported that Mauricio Macri’s administration had promised to create 3,000 kindergartens but he did not deliver, leaving 600,000 children without access to early education. See: CTERA (2019), ‘Informe de situación Plan Nacional “3000 jardines de Infantes”,’ MEDIATECA PEDAGÓGICA DE CTERA, accessed on October 3rd, 2019, http://mediateca.ctera.org.ar/items/show/375.

6. The social organization La Garganta Poderosa, along with the Commission for the Defense of Health, Ethics and Human Rights (CODESEDH), has filed one of the four reports submitted to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ten cases were presented including Kevin, a nine-year-old boy killed by the Gendarmerie and Iván and Ezequiel, two boys of Villa 21 (a deprived neighborhood) tortured by law enforcement officers. The Argentinian government has received a warning, according to Nacho Levy, leader of this organization: https://ar.radiocut.fm/audiocut/la-onu-cita-a-la-poderosa-para-ampliar-denuncia-por-violacion-a-los-derechos-del-nino/#.

7. According to CEPAL/UNICEF (2020), over 80 million children and adolescents in urban areas live in precarious housing conditions – 51.2% of child population.

8. According to data from Unicef’s sociolinguistic atlas, Brazil is the country with the greatest diversity of indigenous peoples with 241 groups which account for 734,127 [this seems too low] people. With 83 groupstheir (1,392,623 inhabitants), Colombia comes in second, followed by Mexico with 67 (9,504,184 inhabitants) and Peru with 43 (3,919,314 people). At the opposite end, El Salvador has 3 indigenous peoples (13,310 people), Belize has 4 (38,562 inhabitants) and Surinam 5 (6,601 people). Regarding the Caribbean islands, such as Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Saint Lucia, there are only a few pieces of data on the survival of native peoples, but there are some claims about the recognition of indigenous identity at a local level. There are five indigenous peoples with more than a million people, such as Quechua, Nahua, Aymara, Yucatan Maya, and Ki’che’. Six peoples have between half a million and a million persons: Mapuche, Qʼeqchiʼ Maya, Kaqchikel, Mam, Mixtec, and Otomi.

9. In September 2020, two girls, barely over ten years old, were killed by Paraguay’s military men, who justified themselves by saying the two girls were guerillas. https://www.nodal.am/2020/09/el-parlasur-reclama-una-profunda-investigacion-por-el-asesinato-de-dos-ninas-argentinas-a-manos-del-ejercito-paraguayo/

10. The Movimiento Chicos del Pueblo has a long-standing bond with childhood. Its main leader, Alberto Morlachetti, has added to the discourse about the protection of rights with his own way of looking at inequality and poverty, cradled in poetical singularity. For decades Casa del Niño and Hogar Pelota de Trapo have been doing educational work with children every day. Other experiences are extremely relevant in the field of childhood and social movements. See https://www.pelotadetrapo.org.ar/oculto/hogar-pelota-de-trapo.html.