Early childhood education in Buenos Aires territory: between the law, the obligation and the inequalities

Abstract

The article tries to problematize the inequalities in the exercise of the right to early childhood education in the Province of Buenos Aires, considering the normative transformations and in the policy orientations, the characteristics of the offer and a set of quantitative data on coverage and enrollment. These discussions constitute the first findings of an ongoing doctoral research that proposes to analyze policies aimed at intervening on social and educational inequalities that impact early childhood education in vulnerable territories of the province of Buenos Aires since the extension of the compulsory school in 2007. The empirical corpus gathers legal bases and official national and provincial documents; statistical sources of the educational and social administration of both levels of government; and reports and data from university observatories and specialized organizations on the subject. We will show that, despite regulatory advances, the differential expansion of supply and coverage, as well as the fragmentation of services, allow us to warn about processes of unequal inclusion and persistent exclusion that affect the effective enjoyment of the right to initial education and that affect the reproduction of social and gender inequalities, especially in the most neglected territories.