The opportunity for young people in Argentina to learn English is limited to less than half of all public primary schools, according to a recent study by the British Council.

Learning English in Argentina is an experience that vastly differs depending on where students live and whether they go to public or private schools, but difficulties go beyond that: a lack of national policies is causing serious inequity for children to access education in this area, according to a recent study by the British Council.

In Argentina, 54% of primary school students from both public and private institutions have access to at least one hour of English classes per week, while in secondary schools this is the case for 84% of students, an Education Secretariat report from 2023 found. While numbers have improved over the past decade, there are still several difficulties in progression, the British Council found in a study based on the report.

When comparing students from both school levels that go to either public or private schools there is a stark difference; while 74% of private school students have English classes, only 46% from public schools do.

In general terms, Argentine students have an average of three hours of English classes per week. While in some provinces access to these classes is widespread — like in Catamarca, La Pampa, Tierra del Fuego or Buenos Aires City — in others it’s far from that: in Formosa, 83% of secondary school students are taught English, but only 6% of primary students are. This mainly responds to the fact that teaching a foreign language is not mandatory in that province.

While the national education law establishes that all students must be taught at least one foreign language, it doesn’t specify which one, although English is almost always the preferred option.

Despite the regional differences in the case of primary school students, in secondary schools access to English classes “is widespread” and “practically all provinces have a coverage of over 75% and some, like Córdoba (94%), Río Negro (95%) and La Pampa (96%) have numbers close to universalization.” 

The study also found common issues present in most Argentine schools regarding English teaching. This included poor communication and cooperation between primary and secondary levels to ensure the progression of the learning process, difficulties to cover vacant teaching positions, lack of opportunities for teachers’ training as well as teaching materials provided by schools. They also encounter difficulties regarding reading and writing in their mother tongue, which can often make learning a new language tougher.

The British Council partnered with public policies NGO CIPPEC to analyse the challenges of English teaching in Argentina and made a series of proposals for public policies aimed at changing this reality moving forward, which they presented to education officials in late April.

“I believe focusing on governance is key, because from there on all the other recommendations can be articulated,” said Mariela Masuyama, head of English and Schools Education Programmes at the British Council.

“There has to be a clear outview of who is responsible for the educational policies on teaching English at a provincial and local level,” Masuyaga told the Herald. “That’s where the curriculum is designed, as well as decisions regarding teaching staff and labor conditions.”

The British Council and CIPPEC recommended improving state capabilities regarding English teaching by creating specialized teams and promoting dialogue between the national, provincial and local governments, as well as carrying out strategic planning in order to ensure there are enough English teachers distributed across the country. The aim, they say, is to incentivize them to graduate and continue training.

They also pointed out the need to improve labor conditions for teachers, and update and standardize the English curriculum across Argentina to ensure equal access. Carrying out evaluations and diagnostics on learning and teaching English processes, in order to know “what is going on in the classrooms and make decisions accordingly,” the report said.

“For many reasons, people are not choosing teaching as a career,” Masuyama said. “We have more students in the system, and more teachers are needed. That is the challenge of the near future.” 

The study points to an urgent need to re-evaluate and update the way kids are currently being taught English to keep them motivated, especially in the age of artificial intelligence.

For Masuyaga, prioritizing skills and teaching English for specific, real-life uses “will be very important,” even more so than students reaching a certain English level. She described an example of students from a school with a tourism focus in Jujuy, who need to learn to give indications or describe cities to tourists.

“Years ago, English classes focused on writing, reading and translating. You can do all that with AI nowadays,” Masuyaga said. “Today, it’s much more valuable that you can speak, introduce yourself, listen and understand. We need to be more flexible and adapt.”