What is important and urgent

In recent days, distinguished columnists have pointed out the importance health and education As strategic assets for countries’ development. Obviously, the influence of Adam Smith was historically notorious, and that is how Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and the entire generation of the 1980s understood it, which is why they were able to lead a poor and mostly ignorant Argentina to stop being poor and move closer to the world. 80% of the highest per capita GDP in 1910 (US $4,964, Argentina $4,300).

We must also remember more than 100 years that have passed with countless follies, hidden behind strong political slogans such as: “Argentine Powers” ​​(the economic plan launched by Peron in 1973 and then continued by López Rega until “Rodrigazo”) as well as many others with different names and periods (quinques, IAPI, nationalization, small tables, etc.); It has generated evictions and looting that have resulted in a per capita GDP of our country today equivalent to only 16% of that of the United States.

Roberto Borrone points out that the current Mayo Charter currently lacks health and education components; It also raises a powerful question that we ascribe to: Can anyone question the value to the economy of a 21st century country whose population enjoys excellent health and a first-class education within everyone’s reach?

It also appropriately states that: “What is urgent (economy and security) and what is important (health and education)” It must be addressed in a way that generates a virtuous circle, because what is important will give sustainability over time to what is urgent.

The perfect opportunity

We also agree that the May Charter will be: “the perfect opportunity to outline the ‘thick outline’ for reorganizing the public health system.” In our own personal view and given the constitutional constraints, we believe that an implementation path should be agreed on comprehensive regional insurance, with strong roots in primary health care and drawing on the valuable experiences of several European countries, Canada and Australia.

he Swiss model It combines practical training in a company for 3 days a week and theoretical training in school 2 days a week.”

In brief, this means moving from the dominant axis of public hospitals, as “subsidizing service delivery to the poor,” to universal basic insurance with preventive and transitional medicine; It also covers in this way those who cannot effectively afford it (partially or completely), through true “demand subsidies”.

It is clear that a reorganization of this pattern, if well planned and implemented, would allow the provision of higher quality services to the entire population, whether through private or public service providers as long as the latter reorganize their structures and operations efficiently (without corruption or political accusations).

Faced with a journalist’s question about why it was never taken up, we were timely reminded that there are few of us proposing this approach inside and outside governments; Clearly, doing so would imply redirecting important resources, truly focusing on the beneficiaries and not on the multiple sectoral interests that feed on them.

X-rays and serious diagnosis

Regarding education, the recent “Radography of Argentine Universities” (Fundación Libertad 2025) provides information and indicators that cannot and should not be ignored:

• In terms of GDP, spending on higher education in Argentina (1.04%) is slightly below the G20 average (1.09%) and the OECD (1.21%).
• Argentina achieves only 20 graduates for every 100 incoming students, while in Brazil 27 out of every 100 graduates and in Chile achieve this at least 82 out of every 100 participants!
• This ratio of graduates/enrollees averages 20.7% in national universities, while in private universities this ratio reaches 41.7%.
• Argentina has only 19% of its population aged 25-34 having graduated from higher education, which is well below the G20 average (41%) and the OECD (48%).
• The budget per student in national universities for the year 2024 reaches $1.5 million, which represents An absurd result of $34.7 million per student actually graduating.

“Argentina achieves only 20 graduates out of every 100 incoming students, while at least 82 out of every 100 incoming students.”

Compared to this latest indicator of spending per graduating student, high school educational outcomes show that only 10% of students who started elementary school in 2013 finished high school on time and with the expected knowledge in math and reading.

This is due to a large educational gap; almost 85% of students who graduate from high school do not reach the basic level in mathematics and 41% And he doesn’t do that with language either. In primary schools, attendance is almost universal, but learning outcomes are uneven and worsen at the end of a level, according to the national census report and analysis of the Indicator of School Outcomes (IRE).

Only 10% of students who started elementary school in 2013 finished high school on time and with the expected knowledge in math and reading.”

At this point, the need to change priorities in resource allocation (at least for a period of time) became clear. If we analyze the current policies pursued by some European countries, we will be surprised by the need to restore institutions that were once so important in Argentina.

For example, The “vocational model” in Switzerland It is a successful dual system of vocational training (which combines practical training in a company 3 days a week and theoretical training at school 2 days a week). This model promotes strong cooperation between the public and private sectors and integrates trainees into real production processes, leading to the training of qualified employees prepared for the labor market.

When they finish high school, they not only receive diplomas (which enable them to continue their university studies), but also experience, salary and status in the labor market. For this reason, youth unemployment in Switzerland is one of the lowest in the world (less than 5%), ensuring that young people have access to formal employment before they fall into the grip of the harmful influences of the street.

In these Swiss programmes, young people are trained in fiber optics, as programmers and designers in start-ups, in chemical and metallurgy companies as well as biotechnology.

There is no doubt that the strategic factor for Argentina to achieve those indisputable successes noted in 1910 is also related to the fact that in 1899 Otto Kraus founded the first art school modeled on the polytechnic institutes of Europe and North America at that time. Restoring old schools and imitating new successful models that link schools to the labor market is therefore an inevitable need.