Building another school is possible

Almost two years after the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, the consequences are devastating and overwhelming. Half-schooled students and others who dropped out are clear examples of the catastrophic aftermath.

And although for some time it came back with a face-to-face experience as soon as the health authorities allowed it, today the Argentine education system is going through one of its greatest challenges.

In the context of the pandemic, the premise was, mainly, to maintain the link with students, to the detriment, at times, of strengthening learning. Even in the middle of the 2021 school year, the concept of low-intensity trajectory was disseminated to those students who barely achieved less than 25% participation or intermittent trajectories to refer to students whose intervention was between 25% and 70% in class activities recommended by the school, in any of the established forms of schooling.

In the province of Santa Fe, with 10% of students in the national education system, there is talk of about 8,500 students outside school. That is why a few weeks ago, the Governor asked all mayors and community chiefs to accompany the program “All Girls and Boys in Learning School” to relink young people with institutions. Some of the local authorities quickly refused because they echoed disputes over funds that do not reach the municipalities.

However, the provincial government cannot leave education adrift or to the will of each mayor, an undelegable function of each jurisdiction. In addition, it is not enough to go and look for them. It is necessary to offer other alternatives of students to make the school meaningful to them. It would be like believing that I have a sweater just because I bought the wool. Clearly it is a fundamental condition, but there will be no garment if we don't weave the threads.

School dropout is a serious and profound issue that deserves key solutions for all young people to come and stay in the classroom. If the focus is on school dropout, it must also be focused on the appropriation of content, beyond counting the percentage of activities delivered as is usually done.

If we already know the diagnosis, what do we do to change the school? Here are some proposals:

- Modify the format of the secondary school; that is, to offer other courses, addressing content by problem; with virtual practices - synchronous or asynchronous - and with interdisciplinary projects. It is necessary to leave aside the atomized and fragmented teaching that characterizes the level and encourages the disinterest of students.

- Articulate primary and secondary school, since it is a key moment in school development because children leave one school and do not enroll in the next level.

- Identify and reliably address adolescent problems such as pregnancy, drug use, alcoholism, domestic violence, violent dating, among others.

- Offer specific strategies, especially for the most vulnerable families, so that they can attend the initial level from the start. It is not mass knowledge that room 4 is mandatory.

- To have projects focused on selective practices according to the problems of the neighborhoods. In this case, partnerships with NGOs are essential.

- To propose a school where different intelligences are valued: corporal, naturist, musical, visual, intra- and interpersonal, linguistic and mathematical with entertaining proposals, where all young people feel part; with activities where numbers are intertwined with music or physical education and where not only the student who is capable in mathematics.

- Educate emotional intelligence. It is at school that we learn to be with others, to live together. Valuing and recognizing one's own and others' emotions can help us understand that “we are with others”

- Develop collaborative work between peers to learn from each other. It's more motivating and more creative.

- Accompaniment to new teachers, those who are starting out; who generally attend more remote neighborhoods, where learning and teaching are blurred by the social problems that arise and teach and learn take a background.

- In the face of consummated school failure, plan an adult education that respects previous and local knowledge and, in turn, teaches differently than day school.

- Schools with virtual support classrooms so that children can raise doubts or learn what they could not do in person. It's public knowledge that you don't learn all at once.

- Promote friendly school climates, with mobile benches, to overcome the traditional format proposed by one student after another looking at the back of the partner's neck

Undoubtedly, a better school can be built, more meaningful for students and teachers, that breaks with the state bureaucracy of complying with certain regulations and, moreover, teaching knowledge, but also skills and abilities, where it is memorized, but also understood, where it is transmitted, but knowledge is also built, with books, but also with computers, that prepares for the world of work, but above all that is enjoyed in the meantime.

Another school is possible if education becomes a priority for the governments of the day.

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