Some phases of educational progress in Latin AmericaMontgomery, Walter A. (Walter Alexander)
History
Some phases of educational progress in Latin America
Montgomery, Walter A. (Walter Alexander)
Education -- Latin America
The educational policy of Argentina thus returned to its traditional
status; and secondary education still centers around the 37
colegios nacionales, institutions for boys of 10 to 14 years of
age, which admit those with leaving certificates from the fifth
and sixth grades of the higher primary schools, and by revisal
of 1911 offer courses arranged by fourfold division of subjects
into the physical-mathematical, the chemical-biological, the
historical-geographical, and the literary-philosophical groups.
A decree of the National Council dated February, 1916, made the
certificate of sixth grade of the public school obligatory for
admission to the colegio. This was regarded as going far toward
settling two fundamental difficulties--the first, the long desired
abolition of the entrance examination, as discredited by experience
and prejudicial to secondary training, and the second, the official
recognition of the compulsory attendance law for children of 6 to 14
years.
Among the new subjects assigned for the colegios is the study of
Italian, now restored after being abolished by previous decree. In
accordance with this requirement, a course in this language has been
instituted in the normal schools for the preparation of teachers.
The close connection of the interests of the colegio nacionale with the
university is brought out in the report of the rector of the National
University of Buenos Aires for 1916. It is of significance as striking
out new lines in what had always been a conservative division, and
carried weight in the fluid state of public opinion on education which
prevailed just at that time.
Taking up the instructional aspect of secondary education, and the
claims put forward by zealous partisans of the opposing views that the
colegios should prepare either for higher studies or for practical
life, but not for both, he urged legal provisions for both forms of
training to supply the demand felt in all modern states for men of
thought as well as efficiency in action. In the light of this demand
all wrangling as to programs of study could only be to the damage
of the State. Since the Argentine colegios half a century ago were
modeled after the French lycées, with their emphasis upon the cultural
studies, the world had moved far, economically and socially, and sane
modifications in secondary education now clamored for recognition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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