Argentina: Law of National Education

 

 

On this page, we collect links and articles related to the Law of National Education, recently passed in Argentina.

The National Law of Education and Foreign Languages, and a short note on the teaching of adults

By Ana María Armendáriz

 

NOTE BY THE WIKI CONTRIBUTORS: this article was originally printed in APIBA'S Newsletter 27 (March 2007), and can now be retrieved (as a .pdf file) from APIBA'S site (click on "Newsletters" on the Sidebar on the left). All hyperlinks are our addition.

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The new Law and Foreign Languages

 

The National Law of Education (2006) explicitly prescribes the compulsory teaching of at least one foreign language (FL) at primary and secondary school, the precise modes and times of implementation to be regulated by the Federal Council of Education (FCE) (Art. 27 [c]: Art. 30 [d]: Art. 87) The Law prescribes common structures and curricular contents for all levels and years of compulsory education. (Art. 85 [a])

 

Previous work on the nine curricular areas stemming from the Federal Law of Education (1993) –including the Basic Contents of Foreign Languages for Basic and Polymodal Education, and Teacher Education (1997-8 – certainly attempted to produce this effect, though utterly failed for many reasons.

There are –yet– no new guidelines to replace these documents, but a development of prioritised contents of learning –“Núcleos de Aprendizaje Prioritarios”– will be developed. The “Basic” Curricular Areas of Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences have been working for the last three years on them. The remaining curricular areas, apart from FLs, have not, to this date, gone into the actual development of these prioritised contents. There are no guidelines in the new Law as regards the development of a linguistic policy: there is the treatment of Spanish as a first language – it is still called Lengua, as if it were the only language; there is no consideration of Spanish as a second language, though there are references to indigenous languages (Art. 11 [ñ]; Chapter XI: Intercultural Bilingual Education, Arts. 52-54)

 

It would be a real pity if Federal Agreement 15 “for Language Teaching” (1998) were abrogated, since it is considered a valid document of linguistic policy for the country. It discusses the learning of the L1 (Spanish, indigenous and community languages); Spanish as an L2 (with indigenous peoples, communities and on the border with Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia), and foreign languages (this document is available at APIBA’s website).

 

 

Adult Education

This section focuses on Adult Education as a disadvantaged population. The Law (Chapter IX, Arts. 46-8: Arts. 17: 80 & 102 [c]) purports the provision of educational equality and the avoidance of exclusion, for these learners to complete primary and secondary education, and thus develop literacy and numeracy, as well as professional and technical skills. It considers distance education modes (Art. 109) and scholarships (Art. 138)

 

This indirectly entails the teaching of a foreign language. After many years of technical assistance to provincial personnel to develop their curricular designs of adult FLL, it was necessary for them to define their learning targets in terms of the age factor for acquisition, their needs – cognitive, social professional and otherwise, the development of learning and communicative strategies best conducive to language learning, how the handling of other languages – indigenous or community L1s and Spanish as an L2 – impinge upon, facilitate or hinder the learning of a FL, and how an integrated approach – “saberes integrados” (Art. 30 [e]) will best develop a suitable methodology.

 

Consideration of indigenous or community L1s has been left out, and, in many cases, the “solution” has been to focus only on reading comprehension,

which has very often rendered in utter disappointment on the part of the target population. In this short note I have tried to contextualise FLs in the Law, and place Adult LL in focus in a different light from what is customary in our midst.

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APIBA asks: "How will the new Law of Education affect the teaching of English? How do you or your colleagues feel about the changes? What implications does it have for the ELT profession? We would gladly welcome your comments and articles. Please send them to info@apiba.org.ar"

 

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Last updated: May 04, 2007