The budget allocated to the current Ministry of Education – formerly the Ministry – is the lowest in real terms since 2006. The information comes from calculations carried out by the Civic Association for Equality and Justice (ACIJ) through its comptroller: Adjusted for current prices, the amount allocated to this secretariat was $6.5 billion in 2006 and $5.3 billion in 2025. In 2017, $10.7 billion and in 2023, $11.2 billion is the largest budget allocated to education in comparison.
Although the government launched the National Literacy Plan in 2024 and declared that education would be a priority, the program aimed at training teachers also has the lowest budget since 2008 (the first year ACIJ registered) when it was equivalent to $46,322 million in 2025 prices. This year that amount reaches 9,772 million pesos.
The teacher salary compensation program was one of the most affected programs. It was created in 2005 with the aim of ensuring additional funding that makes it possible to supplement the provincial minimum salaries with fewer resources. From that moment on, it went from the current $1.47 trillion to the current $1,000 million (of which, as PERFIL has been able to verify, not a single peso has been spent). Between 2016 and 2025, funds allocated to build and enhance kindergartens rose from $42 billion to $14 billion as of November 2025.
The National Education Law, in Article 9, stipulates that the state will guarantee the financing of the system and that the budget shall not be less than 6% of the gross domestic product. However, they highlight a report by Argentinos Por la Educacion, “The 6% target was only achieved in fiscal year 2015, resulting in a debt accumulation equivalent to 5% of GDP between 2006 and 2020.” They add that the 2026 budget prepared by the executive branch – which is in the process of approval or rejection in Congress – “explicitly seeks to repeal Article 9 of the National Education Law, eliminating the legal requirement to allocate at least 6% of GDP to education.”
Moreover, they emphasize that investment in education, starting in 2020, “showed a gradual recovery until it reached 1.41% in 2023, followed again by a decline in 2024 (0.86%).” They added that forecasts at the end of 2025 and estimates for 2026 “expect a deepening of this trend, with investment levels in education and culture equivalent to 0.73% and 0.75% of GDP, respectively.”
The document also analyzes the behavior of the budget for 2026. For this year, the nominal change of the Secretariat budget will be 17.9%, which corresponds to 3.6% real growth with inflation forecasts in the draft budget, and 0.1% measured in relation to inflation in the Market Expectations Survey (REM), “showing a lower real margin of increase.”
Various press releases this week indicated that the government is also working to repeal the current education law and that the project includes, among other things, the possibility of distance learning, teacher evaluation, and allowing prefectures to teach religious and sectarian content in public schools.
The Department of Human Capital responded to PERFIL’s inquiry by saying: “Like labor reform, all of this is being worked on within Mayo Council with absolute discretion.” As for the rest, they said, it was “press operations,” and they stressed that the ministry had nothing to say “because it is a closed and reserved area.”
As background, the original draft rule bill sent by the executive branch to Congress in December 2023 included “hybrid and distance” studies as an “alternative to face-to-face education” starting with the second cycle of primary level for minors, youth, and adults. The current education law also included continuous evaluation of teachers “through a test that attests to the acquired skills and knowledge.” Periodic evaluation “will be a condition and incentive for being able to work as a teacher in the country.” These capabilities, according to this project, must be re-verified every five years.
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