Barely 24 percent of Argentines have managed to complete education at tertiary level, the most recent report of the Centro de Estudios de la Educación Argentina (CEA) of Belgrano University has revealed.
The study, based on data published by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), shows the country is well below the body’s global average of 41 percent, occupying 36th place among the 44 nations listed.
In Latin America, Argentina lags behind Chile, where 31 percent of the population in the 25 to 64 age group have a tertiary degree, and Costa Rica (25 percent), while running ahead of Colombia (22 percent), Brazil and Mexico (the latter two both with 21 percent of the population with complete university studies).
“The unemployment for people completing the tertiary level is barely three percent in our country while reaching eight percent for those completing secondary school and nine percent for those who don’t,” assured CEA director Alieto Guadagni.
In the last few years most new jobs have required secondary and tertiary education levels, thus partly explaining the differences in the rates of employment observed, according to the educational level of the workers, Guadagni said.
“The secondary educational level is transforming itself into the floor established by most modern firms for the recruitment of their staff. But grouping the population whose educational level falls below completed secondary studies, it amounts to a third in our country, thus placing Argentina 32nd among the 44 nations,” explained the specialist.
“Japan is in first place with nobody below that category while India is last with 77 percent,” he added.
The data published by the OECD show that a higher educational level improves the probabilities of job access while helping youth to stay out of the “ni-ni” situation of neither studying nor working.
For that reason not only the matriculation of youth at secondary and tertiary level but above all the finalisation of such studies must be encouraged, the report concludes.
– TIMES/NA
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