Analysis and reflection on the fragmentation of the educational system in times of pandemic

Abstract

The suspension of face-to-face activities became an unprecedented experience in the school that recovers its central and irreplaceable place for education. With this phenomenon, inequalities have deepened and with it the core idea of the fragmentation of the educational system takes center stage, such as the monopolization of knowledge, resources and opportunities by the best positioned sectors, while in the most vulnerable sectors are put at risk their access to the right to education. This paper will reflect on the concept of fragmentation of the educational system, widely studied in Argentina, which is resignified, in the scenario derived from the pandemic, marking different ways of facing the suspension of face-to-face classes and the intermittent returns of face-to-face classes in secondary schools in the province of Catamarca. The empirical material comes from interviews with officials of the province, through which we survey, from the perspective of the informants, the pre-existing inequalities, the manifestations of the dimensions that constitute the notion of fragmentation of the educational system and some strategies carried out by the actors of the educational communities in general, which made it possible to sustain the transition between 2020 and 2021 given the unequal distribution of resources between the different sectors.