How is the educational system of the Argentine Army that Del Potro, "Lali" Esposito and other celebrities passed through
At the precise moment in which the always open gate that marks the entrance to "Campo de Mayo" is crossed, the military scenery dominates the environment: the thick vegetation prevailing in a good part of the countless hectares of the largest military estate in the country; the fajina uniforms worn by the men and women who walk briskly through the place; and the artillery pieces that appear on both sides of the road, dye the entire landscape green. In the midst of the succession of buildings that make up this true city of arms, one of them is particularly special for this chronicle: it is the one that corresponds to the General Directorate of Education of the Army.
the military university
Infobae is received at the site by the current General Director of Education of the Army, Brigadier General Agustín Humberto Cejas. He is unremarkable that he is wearing his military uniform or that his general's sword is next to him. On the contrary, he is the position that he brings associated with his military destiny: Vice Chancellor of the University of Defense.
—How is it possible for a General to be vice-rector of a civil academic structure such as a university?
—It is possible thanks to the fact that, starting in 1994, the higher education institutes of the Army (and those of the other armed forces) readjusted their curricula in order to be fully inserted into the university educational system at the national level. In this way we began a long process in which, in addition to dealing with issues related to academics, we began to deal with research and university extension.
Although in principle the training institutes of the Armed Forces began to develop as University Institutes, General Cejas points out: As of 2014, by national law, what we know today as the University of Defense was constituted. This house of higher studies has an academic council headed by a civil Rector (currently the position is held by Professor Dr. Gonzalo Álvarez), with the Directors of Education of each armed force being vice-rectors of the organization.
Delving into the subject, the head of the education of the ground military explains: In this way the military educational system is linked with the national education system. That is to say, there is total compatibility between both processes that ends up making it possible for the particular case of the Army today to have two faculties in operation within the Institution.
As General Cejas details, in this university configuration of the military education system, the Army has a dean who carries out his tasks in accordance with the provisions of Law 24,531, which regulates university operations. Two academic units depend on this dean, the first is logically the Military College of the Nation, the place from which the officers of the force graduate. It turns out that the young sub-lieutenants, in addition to their "office" as officers, receive a university degree with a bachelor's hierarchy when they graduate. Then, when they attend the Escuela Superior de Guerra, depending on their orientation or specialty, they simultaneously complete a postgraduate course that also corresponds to what is required of a graduate of any university in the country.
"In addition, the Army has its own engineering faculty. In it, eight variants of this discipline can be studied," says the soldier.
As the military education system is related to the equivalent in civilian life, graduates of their training institutes who wish to pursue university careers in other areas, enjoy the corresponding equivalences between subjects of the same discipline.
—This military university system only attends to the needs of the personnel of the force or can it be used by civilians?
—The system has two types of races, closed and open. In the case of the former, we must understand that they clearly concern the military profession and therefore are reserved solely for the institution's personnel. The open ones, on the other hand, are intended to be shared between civilians and military personnel, who in the same field share studies and experiences, constituting something truly enriching. One of the main objectives of this educational structure is to raise the threshold of knowledge as much as possible, training professionals with high critical thinking and who are capable of acting in scenarios of permanent change, explains the general.
Non-commissioned officers and soldiers
—What you have detailed up to here refers exclusively to officers and to the extent that it corresponds to other civilian professionals. What academic training opportunities does the Army offer its non-commissioned officers and soldiers?
—Education in the Army is integral, permanent and comprehensive. In this aspect, currently the personnel who enter the NCO School, together with the military rank with which they graduate, receive a title of superior technician according to the military specialty that they had studied. In fact, within this General Directorate there is a dependency that specifically deals with the problem of pre-university training. Soldiers can also complete their studies within the force's educational system.
—All this education and training is carried out by military teachers, or are there civilian teachers within the system?
—Our educational system reflects and responds as a whole to the national educational policy. In this context, our civil and military teaching staff carry out the corresponding competitions to be admitted as holders in different chairs, there are also hiring of substitutes many times. The processes are not only controlled by the General Inspectorate of the Force, but also by the University of Defense and by CONEAU itself (National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation).
SEADEA (EA distance education system)
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—These days a lot of controversy has been generated around a government initiative to provide some kind of training to young civilians in the field of a security force. Is it really true that the Army has maintained a civil education system open to the public for years?
—The distance education system was born precisely as a derivation of the new paradigms of education and also because of the need that the Army had to contribute to the training of the children of personnel who for reasons of service were forced to move to places away from conventional educational centers, abroad or, for example, to Antarctica Argentina itself.
According to the Army press office: It was at the beginning of the 90's, when work began in this direction. Soon we began to realize that other sectors of society had needs similar to those of our staff, such as members of the diplomatic corps, athletes and artists who for professional reasons had to abandon their conventional studies.
Infobae was able to learn that the Force's Education Department has signed agreements with entities ranging from the River Plate athletic club to the Colón theater, with the purpose of making it possible for young Argentines engaged in harsh disciplines that require many hours of dedication not to are forced to drop out of school.
Among all the civilian students who passed through the virtual classrooms of the Army are tennis players such as Juan Martín Del Potro, Facundo Argüello, Federico Delbonis, Diego Schwartzmann; soccer players, such as Jonathan Calleri and Augusto Batalla; members of Las Leoncitas such as María Sol Fernández Julieta Cedres, Agustina Albertarrio and Fátima Bustos, as well as Florencia Habif of Las Leonas.
So did actresses like Mariana "Lali" Esposito, Eugenia "La China" Suárez, Oriana Sabatini, Ángela Torres, Karol Piña and Eva Quatrocci.
The traditional Military Schools
Although they are better known among the general population, the lyceums are middle-level educational structures that are not intended to recruit young soldiers. On the contrary, and according to General Cejas himself, "its purpose is to train civilian citizens who, although they bear an imprint of the values and philosophy of the institution, later develop in civilian life and are true disseminators of the activity and importance of the Army for the country". In this sense, the soldier recalls that, being himself a graduate of a military high school, he belongs to a promotion of 120 graduates, of which only 12 entered the Military College and 2 became generals.
Some numbers
286 careers at three levels, 13,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students (for 2019), 37 academic units, student exchanges with countries in the region, Europe and the United States, 8 engineering careers, 5 postgraduate degrees, 6 technical degrees, improvement in 7 languages, plus Spanish for foreigners, teaching staff at levels of initial, secondary, tertiary and university education.
Some other examples
Although today the armed forces and most of the security forces - with variations - have adopted university training systems, there are some examples that are quite old in time that deserve to be highlighted. Just to take one, serve as an example the so-called Navy Apprentice School.
From the naval force itself they indicate to Infobae that "the educational activities of the Navy Apprentice School, located at the Puerto Belgrano Naval Base, are aimed at providing citizens with technical training with a theoretical base - practice of different trades to favor their insertion in the labor market and contribute to the need to exercise the social responsibility that corresponds to the Argentine Navy as an organism of the national State".
This training institute was also born out of the Navy's need to educate and train civilian personnel who could later develop themselves in the different specialties of naval arts and crafts, especially in regard to ship repair and maintenance. Its origins date back to 1945 and after various transformations it was deactivated in 1998.
In 2005, it was concluded that its deactivation had created a huge gap in the preparation of specialized labor that could meet the demands, not only institutional but also of the National Merchant Marine and hundreds of naval workshops and shipyards. .
Finally in 2006 the Apprentice School was reopened. Among other courses, Naval Engines, Naval Carpentry, Naval Structures and Naval Machines are available. Several important and recognized naval engineers and technicians have made their first steps in the activity in the classrooms of this school.
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