Argentina schools- quality or location?

[Rease]

There are so many tiny little schools all over the city and I always see parents walking their kids to schools that are on the same block as their home. Today I thought...are parents choosing the school only for the location?


Does anyone have insight on this, maybe people with kids?

 

[fergo]

Having a private school in argentina is a great deal. The fact that the state will pay 45 percent of the teachers wage (the proportional on what they would be paying them if only they were public school teachers) plus very specific subjects. As for primary school the best is public education, i went to one and highschool on a private international and I had a far better preparation than the ones that came from other privates. When considering highschools then yes technical knowdeldge provided by private schools are the best. Though in the end it all depends on your kid and how much he wants to learn from it.

 

[katti]

I suppose some people choose the school for location, but that is certainly not essential. I suppose location is more important for the little kids, and less for secundary school kids

For me location was of no importance, but the fact that they could go back to Belgium (or other countries) to study afterwards. Not all schools offer IB. My kids take a combi to school.

 

[fifs2]

Chosing location over quality would be lazy in any part of the world...god forbid any parent would do that if they have choices. In looking for a fully bilingual school so our kids could possibly return to an English only academic environment, we reviewed all the major bilingual schools in Belgrano and ended up chosing a more intimate school in Caballito because the quality of the English teaching and the school was outstanding....money does not necessarily buy good English teachers or teaching, you have to be confident in knowing what you are looking for and assessing if the school has more to offer than the mere marketing gloss. We have been so happy with our son's development as is he..he is fully bilingual and an outstanding student in both languages which they say is a real challenge to achieve. The smaller school lacks the facilities we would look for in Europe (sports fields, orchestra etc) but the personal touch plus small class sizes should not be underestimated.

 

[AngelinBA]

It could be that people choose their apartment for it's proximity to a school rather than the other way round. Most of my boy's school buddies seem to live in a 6 block radius to the school. (Unfortunately I can't afford the rental prices in the area so we're public transporting it to school each day).

 

[yoga*bird]

I think that many people tend to send their younger children to pre-schools in their neighborhood since preschool is normally only 3 hours at the most. The preschools that I have seen in Rosario run the gamut. I've visited so many and can say that there are few really good preschools but the majority are not great. In retrospect I think my son's preschool actually was detrimental since he had little supervision. Unfortunately, the student teacher ratio is like 12 to 1 for children 3 to 4 years. That would actually be illegal in California where I am from. The public school system in this city varies greatly and there are a few good public elementary school, the majority based on the Normal school model. A bit limited in teaching modality in my opinion, but still good basic education. Everyone I talk to says that education in Argentina used to be FANTASTIC but has declined greatly in the last 10 years. I agree. My husband who is Argentine got an amazing and through education in a public school in a tiny pueblo of less than 5,000.00 people back in the late 70's and 80's. However this same school now has a large drop out rate and most of the kids complain about their school, the teachers and the curriculum. Don't know exactly why these things happen. In my experience here, I think that having a short 4 hour school day for K-6 is a huge disadvantage, unless there is a full time parent at home who is spending at least two hours a day with their children working on literacy and doing homework. I'm a former school teacher so it was interesting for me to see how different some of the public elementary schools are compared to what I am used to.

 

[vhking]

We are arriving with an 8 year old for two years in February. We would like to enroll her for the school year at that time. The problem is that we can't come earlier for interviews. Any advice on a bi-lingual school (preferably the Palermo area) accepting us without an interview (unless it's Skype).