Transition from primary to secondary school in Buenos Aires province, within the context of extension of compulsory school. Educational inclusion and differentiation

Abstract

In Argentina, the problem regarding transitions between educational levels gained relevance in the last decades of the XX century in the scenario of expansion of schooling and, later, the extension of compulsory education, which in 2006 included the completion of secondary school. This paper aims to contribute to knowledge on primary to secondary transition placing the analysis in the case of Buenos Aires province, by an approach to the issue at two levels of analysis: first, it seeks to identify transition policies at national, federal and provincial level, and its impact on school enrolment in the province under study. Second, it studies the way primary to secondary transition takes place in six secondary schools in the greater Buenos Aires city area (conurbanobonaerense). For this analysis, three elements are taken into consideration: school admission, the projects schools carry out in the seek for inter-institutional articulation, and some of the pedagogical criteria put into play in the first year of secondary level.