Argentina: new video gives insights into mechanisms of privatisation and commercialisation in education
Focusing on the key findings of a study on the privatisation of education in Argentina commissioned by Education International, the Confederación de Trabajadores de la Educación de la República Argentina has launched the video ‘Educación S.A.’ to highlight how economic interests advocating for the privatisation and commercialisation of Argentina’s public education are gaining ground.
Released on 28 August with the support of Education International (EI) through the Latin American Pedagogical Movement, the 15-minute video shows the actions taken by the Confederación de Trabajadores de la Educación de la República Argentina(CTERA) to address the privatisation offensive in their country.
The video is based on ‘The privatisation of education in Argentina’, a study led by Miryam Feldfeber, Adriana Puiggrós, Susan Robertson and Miguel Duhalde, which carefully documents the current privatisation tendencies in Argentina, including their implications and political challenges, in order to contribute to and promote an informed public debate. It describes the process of privatisation ‘in’ and privatisation ‘of’ education, shows the growing Government investment in private firms active in the education sector, details privatisation tendencies in teacher training and teaching, and describes the market of standardised testing and its impact on education.
“The aim of the EI Global Response initiative spearheading such studies is to document the process of commercialisation and privatisation of education in diverse countries,” explains Sonia Alesso, CTERA General Secretary and member of EI Executive Board.
In the video ‘Educación S.A.’, she stresses that “fighting the idea of education as a service, and supporting education as a right requires both academic work that denounces and brings this privatisation process to the attention of the teaching profession in Argentina, Latin America and globally, and it requires taking to the street in demonstrations supporting public, laic and free education”.
While the education market is very attractive for private investors, it is education unions that must be involved in education policies, not private companies.
EI is currently financing research on privatisation in higher education in Latin America. The effort is spearheaded by EI Argentinian affiliate Federación Nacional de Docentes Universitarios(CONADU). This research will be launched in November 2019.
