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In the last 13 years The percentage of children who do not finish high school decreased and the proportion of those who enter university increased. But this does not mean that they will complete it: it is likely that one in four or five young people who are currently pursuing higher education will not be able to complete it. “It is not a linear life process nor devoid of socioeconomic barriers.“says a study by Argentine Social Debt Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University (UCA) which analyzes the possibilities of access and higher educational achievement of the population between 18 and 24 years old residing in urban areas at the national level.
The percentage of young people in that age group who did not finish secondary school decreased from 46.5% in 2010 and to 32.7% in 2023, while those who are pursuing or have already completed higher education increased from 30.8% to 38%. At the same time, there is an increase in young people who, although they finish secondary school, do not continue or abandon higher education. In the aforementioned period of time, this universe went from 20.1% to 26.4%.
Currently, 40.9% of young people between 18 and 24 years old were or are participating in higher education: 2.9% entered and dropped out, 35.2% continue studying and 2.8% completed successfully. Of those who still maintain the course, not all will have to finish the level: as a comparative exercise, subsequent age cohorts register an almost constant dropout rate of at least 22%, according to the report from the Argentine Social Debt Observatory . It is likely then that one in four or five young people in the current cohort will not graduate. By applying this risk rate, according to the study, it could be expected that 9% of the group would not finish. If this were the case, this cohort will generate almost 32% of higher education graduates.
“Although there is a higher participation rate in this generation at the higher education level, it is to be expected that not all of them will be able to finish. How many will finish? Approximately between 75-80% of those who enter. But the consequent dropout of between 20-25% is not random, it is economically and socially biased, as is the quality of the tertiary or university training that graduates achieve,” Agustín Salvia, director of the observatory, told LA NACION.
The data show a trend towards intergenerational reproduction of educational achievements of the head of the household on the young people who live there.
Almost half of the children who live in a home where the head of the family did not finish high school do not finish high school either: only 29% finish it. At the same time, only 22.1% enter university.
While in those households where the head has completed secondary school or more, the percentage of those who do not complete that level of education is reduced to 20.6% and the percentage of those who access university increases to 52.5%.
In those households where the head has a university education, the percentage of those who do not finish high school is markedly reduced to 13%. The proportion of those who only complete secondary school also decreases (17.1%), while those who agree to pursue higher education reach 69.9%.
It also influences whether these young people live as a couple. For certain socioeconomic sectors it represents a barrier to access or educational continuity. While 30% of young people between 18 and 24 years old who do not live with a partner did not finish secondary school, among those who live with a couple the percentage increases to 49.3%. The same happens among those who finish secondary school, but do not continue studying: it increases from 25.7% to 31.4%.
“Although the proportion of young people between 18 and 24 years old who are united or married is low, it is evident that the economic or domestic responsibility of forming a marital nucleus reduces the continuation of studies; On the contrary, the postponement of marital commitments favors educational success,” states the report written by Eduardo Donza, María Rosa Cicciari and Rodrigo Jara Álvarez.
They took into account the data from the Indec Permanent Household Survey referring to the total urban population of Argentina which, in 2023, included a sample of 76,213 people and 26,286 households.
In that sense, The economic situation of families is a “key factor” in educational access. According to the UCA report, among young people who reside in non-poor households, the incidence of those who did not complete secondary school decreases (22.1%) and those who pursue higher education increase (42.6%), added to those who achieved complete their tertiary or university studies (4.3%).
On the other hand, among young people who live in households in poverty, more than 40% of those do not finish high school and around 25% of those who drop out of university. In indigent households, only 23.5% pursue higher education, while in poor households 28.3% do so.
The analysis also points out that the efforts of the educational system would have to focus, among other things, on the continuity of the higher education of the students. men and, above all, to avoid their abandonment at the secondary level. The data shows that fewer women who drop out of secondary school (27%) than men (37%) and, likewise, there is a greater proportion of women attending university (41.6%) than men (29.4).
The trend is repeated when analyzing who completes this stage: 3.4% of women and only 2.3% of men graduate before the age of 25.
Meanwhile, when analyzing the geographical variable, although no significant differences are observed between the different regions of Argentina and the educational access of young people, it is evident that the region of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA) is the one that registers the lowest percentage of population between 18 and 24 years old that does not finish secondary school (28.2%), while The rest of the regions of the country have values that range between 33.5% and 38.4%.
