Almost one and a half million students received scholarships from the Progresar Program in the first call of 2022, the largest number recorded since the program began, in 2014, according to a report presented this Monday by the Ministry of Education of the Nation, which highlighted the role of the State and the “effort of families” to for students to complete their studies.
“It is a very important study because all the boys who have the Progresar scholarship answered the survey. It is not a sample, it is a universal survey”explained during the presentation of the report the Minister of Education, Jaime Perczyk.
The head of the educational portfolio highlighted the importance of the State having these data for the elaboration of public policies that meet the needs of the sector, since they configure “a clear description of what the children in Argentina are like who need and want support” for study.
The Progress Report First Call 2022, which closed in August, registered a total of 1,369,825 scholarship holders, of which the 54% are between 18 and 24 years old, while 40% are in the age range from 24 to 40.
Likewise, it was indicated that the number of scholarship holders rose to 1,700,000 since the closing of the first call.
The registered is “the highest coverage rate since the Program was created in 2014”, as well as the highest level of investment, which reached 120,000 million pesos, after a “sustained decline” in the number of scholarship holders and resources invested during 2016 and 2019.
“During that time it is not that there was no need, but that there was a political decision on how to address that need, which is rather structural” in the country, emphasized the secretary of Evaluation and Educational Information, Germán Lodola.
Regarding the different lines that make up the program, the report detailed that just over 35% of the scholarship recipients belong to the secondary school completion line, who are between 16 and 17 years old, a scholarship that began in December 2021, while 17.8% are high school students over 18 years of age.
While, 22% are studying at the university level, 14.5% at the tertiary level, 6% are studying Nursing and 4.5% are scholarship holders of Progresar Trabajowith different proportions depending on each province.
More than half of the scholarship holders belong to the Central region, while 19% belong to the Argentine Northwest, 15.4% to the Northeast region, 9% to the Cuyo region and 4.5% to Patagonia.
The provinces of Tucumán and Buenos Aires register the highest proportion of scholarship recipients.
“Each province has a particular makeup, which has to do with particular social realities and cultural conditions,” pointed out Perczyk, who anticipated that the information disaggregated by provinces would be presented and discussed during the Federal Council of Education that takes place today.
This report, they assured, shows that the Progresar Program “targets sectors of high social vulnerability, children who receive salaries from their families, who are in greater proportion women, who come from families with low educational levels and who use the money from the scholarship to study.
In this line, it was indicated that women represent more than half in all the lines of the scholarship, with 64.7% in general, 86% in Nursing and almost 80% in tertiary studies.
Regarding the educational level of their family groups, 64.2% of the scholarship recipients answered that both parents did not complete secondary school and only 27.4% said that at least one of the parents completed it.
“At the compulsory level (secondary), 8 out of 10 are seeking the first secondary degree from home. And at the higher level (university and tertiary), 9 out of 10”he pointed
the Secretary of Educational Cooperation and Priority Actions, Andrea García, and highlighted the role of the State in those “households where there are probably no books, where there are no family groups that can accompany students in strengthening their academic career.”
They also stressed that it is data “very important because they dispute the common sense” that surrounds this type of scholarship financed by the State.
In this sense, it was indicated that 83% of the scholarship recipients do not have sons or daughters and that almost 70% signed up for the Program to get a job, 17.2% to specialize in a trade and 5.4% to change jobs or professions.
Just over half answered that their main income is the contribution from their family and only 19% stated that their main income is the scholarship.
“Most families make an enormous effort so that they can continue studying. There is significant support from the family and the State”Perczyk added.
Currently, the Progresar scholarship is 7,400 pesos, with a bonus for connectivity incorporated and another bonus for the more than 300,000 children who wanted to study foreign languages in the 30 universities and 50 institutions with which the Ministry of Education articulates.
Regarding the use of the assigned amount, 41.5% of the scholarship recipients responded that they use their scholarship to cover work material, notes and photocopies, just over 20% use it for transportation, 16% for the Internet and almost 15% for food.
To be awarded a scholarship, the family group must not exceed three minimum salaries and the student must meet different conditions depending on the line of the program.
For the secondary line, they must comply with the certification of attendance and academic level at the school to continue receiving the scholarship.
