Educational segregation in times of pandemic: Balance of initial actions during social isolation by COVID-19 in Argentina

Abstract

Within a few days after the beginning of the school year, Argentina has implemented mandatory isolation measures that were initially announced for a period of fifteen days and then extended. This paper approaches the management strategies developed in under mandatory isolation, an analysis of the initial regulations related to curricular development, and its effects in terms of educational segregation. This paper consists in an exploratory and descriptive study which uses qualitative methods, based on documentary analysis and interviews with actors in the educational system who had to carry out policies in such circumstances. Preexistence of gaps in the access to digital resources, invisibility of real living conditions, dizzying decisions at central government levels combined with the heterogeneity of solutions at the institutional level and at the school group level shows aspects of a deepening in the educational segregation.