In Argentina, 46% of 3rd grade students at the lowest reading level. This arises from the report “Reading and inequality. Comparisons between Argentina and Latin America”, of the Observatory of Argentines for Education, prepared by Guillermina Tiramonti (FLACSO), Eugenia Orlicki and Martín Nistal (Observatory of Argentines for Education), which analyzes the results of the Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (ERCE) 2019 of Reading in 3rd grade of the country in comparison with the rest of the Latin American countries and by socioeconomic level.
This means that when reading texts appropriate to their age, students in level I are not able to locate information or relationships presented literally and make inferences based on suggested, highlighted or repeated information, the study indicates.
In a deeper look, it can be seen that the figure rises to 61.5% among students in the lowest socioeconomic level tercile, while it falls to 26.3% among students in the highest socioeconomic level tercile.
In our country, only one in ten students (14%) reaches the highest level of performance in reading. It is below the regional average, where two out of ten students are at that level. Two countries -Brazil and Costa Rica- exceed the average. There, three out of ten reach the highest level.
A common denominator among the 16 countries in the region that participated in the study is that the degree of student reading learning is directly related to their socioeconomic level: according to ERCE, in the region, almost six out of ten vulnerable students are at level I
However, this does not mean that students at the top of the pyramid perform better. According to the study, in Argentina, only 26.4% of students in the highest socioeconomic tercile achieve the best performance in reading (level IV). In countries such as Costa Rica (47.4%), Brazil (48.1%), and Peru (50.6%), about half of the students in the highest tercile achieve this level of performance.
“Third grade reading results illustrate the difficulties of all the countries in the region to incorporate their entire population into the literate culture. Including in this learning is a task that requires a strong commitment from those who govern. In Latin America, this effort is greater because in many cases boys from poorly educated populations are joining, very foreign to the school culture,” says Guillermina Tiramonti, co-author of the report. “It is notable that a country like Argentina, which was built as a modern society based on its educational offer, today disbelieves the value of this factor and relegates part of its population to illiteracy,” adds Tiramonti.
“The data shown in the report regarding the learning to read of boys and girls in our country are worrying and, especially, how this deepens in the most vulnerable sectors. It is a reality that we see in popular neighborhoods. After the pandemic we had to create support spaces to accompany the boys and girls in this learning process. It also happens that many mothers and fathers do not have the tools to support them with homework. It is necessary to attend to and put this issue as a priority on the agenda, and develop policies that guarantee a better education, focusing on those who suffer the greatest inequalities,” says Graciela Zenas, a neighborhood leader and worker in the popular economy.
When comparing the data with the previous evaluation (2013), only six countries managed to maintain or improve their position. The greatest gains were recorded in the average score of students in Brazil (+5.1%) and Peru (+4.7%), while the steepest declines occurred in Argentina (-2%) and Guatemala (- 3.2%).
According to Irene Kit, president of the Education for All Civil Association, “it is hopeful to analyze the situation of countries in the region that, with a lower or similar range of GDP, achieve the same or better results. Brazil, a huge, varied country with a federal organization like Argentina, has achieved a substantial improvement”.
In most countries there is a positive correlation between learning outcomes and the level of wealth measured by GDP per capita. However, with an average of 689 points on the test, Argentina performs worse than countries with similar levels of GDP per capita such as Brazil (748 points), Cuba (730) and Mexico (713 points). Several countries with lower GDP per capita perform better, such as Peru (753), Colombia (715), Ecuador (699), and El Salvador (697).
