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EDUCATION
In spite of its many problems, Argentina's higher education managed to reach worldwide levels of excellence in the sixties. The country can claim three Nobel Prize winners in the sciences : Luis Federico Leloir , Bernardo Houssay and César Milstein .
Argentina has the lowest iliteracy rate in southamerica & Latin america and its comparable to that of well developed countries
In Argentina all children between the ages of six and fourteen have to go to school, by law. Free education is available to everyone and the literacy rate is over 95%. High-school education is generally both affordable and available, although attendance falls by nearly half among those older than 14. There are state and private schools for primary and secondary level ; those in the city areas are usually better equipped than those in the country. School curricula is similar to that in Australia and includes Science, Mathematics, Languages, Art, History, Sport and Geography. Among Latin American countries Argentina has the highest levels of education and literacy.
The percentage of individuals attending and completing university degree programs is 3.2% of the population, the second highest in the world after France. The country's public university system is also free of charge. The university system has nearly 70 institutions, divided equally between national institutions (including a few provincially sponsored), public institutions, and private institutions.
Characteristics
Education in Argentina is divided in three phases. The first comprises grades first to ninth, and is called Educación General Básica or EGB ( Spanish , "Basic General Education"). EGB is divided in three stages, called ciclos ("cycles"):
- EGB I: 1st, 2nd and 3rd school years
- EGB II: 4th, 5th and 6th school years
- EGB III: 7th, 8th and 9th school years
Once the EGB is completed, the student finishes the mandatory schooling period and can choose to start secondary education, called Polimodal , which usually last two to three more years. EGB is mandatory to all students, although desertion is high in some parts of the country and laws intended to prevent this are rarely enforced.
The third stage is college education.
Primary education
Primary education comprises the first two EGB cycles (grades 1–6). Because of the system that was in place until 1995 (7 years of primary school plus 5 or 6 of secondary school), primary schools used to offer grades 1–7, although most are already converted to accept 8th and 9th, others chose to eliminate 7th grade altogether, forcing the students to complete the 3rd cycle in another institution.
Secondary education
Secondary education in Argentina is called Polimodal ("polymodal", that is, having multiple modes), since it allows the student to choose his/her orientation. Polimodal is not obligatory but its completion is a requirement to enter colleges across the nation. Polimodal is usually 3 years of schooling, although some schools have a fourth year. Conversely to what happened on primary schools, most secondary schools in Argentina contained grades 8th and 9th, plus Polimodal (old secondary) but now are converting to accept also 7th grade students, thus allowing them to keep their same classmates for the whole EGB III cycle.
College education
There are plenty of public, free universities in Argentina. Private universities are also abundant, but sometimes they are reserved only to the most affluent students.
People
The ancestors of most Argentineans of today originally came from Spain and Italy, with smaller percentages coming from other European nations and Middle-Eastern countries. The country also has a Jewish population of about 350,000, the fifth-largest in the world, and a similar number of Syrian Lebanese people.
There are some indigenous communities that live in the northeast areas of Argentina and in the Patagonian region. Argentina has recently received an important intake of immigration from neighbouring countries, mainly Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia and Uruguay. The immigration from Perú is also significant.
Gaucho is a traditional word meaning country man of South America from Indian and Spanish descent. Till the beginning of this century, there were gauchos in Argentina who spent their days working and riding their horses around the large "estancias"(similar to Australian stations), and looking after cattle that roamed the Pampas. Gauchos often featured as heroes in last-century poems, stories and folkloric songs.
Food
Argentineans like eating beef and drinking wine. The most popular way to eat beef is the "asado" (barbecued beef ribs), whereas whole sides of beef or kid may be spit roasted for large gatherings. Also popular are "empanadas" which are crescent-shaped pies usually filled with meat or corn, and "Locro," a type of stew made with corn, beans, potatoes and peppers. The national drink is "mate" (pronounced mat-A), a green tea made from the leaves of “yerba mate”, a national herb.
Clothing
City people dress in garments . Rural workers may wear the traditional gaucho clothing: a wide brimmed hat, a poncho, and a loose pair of trousers tucked into boots.
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