School dropout prevention policies in Argentine vocational education: Strategies, aims, and perspectives of institutional actors

Abstract

This article analyses public policy programs for dropout prevention in the vocational upper secondary school in Argentina between 2003 and 2015. The study grounds on documents (reports, laws, and regulations) as well as interviews with officials of the Institute of Technological Education of the Ministry of Education from Argentina and in three technical schools maintained by the State in the City of Buenos Aires. Through a qualitative approach, the documents and the participants' discourse and narratives were analyzed under the categories: understanding the diagnosis of school dropout; thinking the solutions for school retention; defining the public educational policies. The research results show that the public policies were successful in democratizing access to the vocational secondary education, although presenting structural limits for carrying on effective dropout prevention in Argentina.