Secondary Education Policies in Río Negro (1957-1970)

The First Agricultural School and the Settling of Young People

Abstract

Starting from the tension between the political and politics, this article examines public policies for secondary education in the Province of Río Negro between 1957 and 1970, with particular emphasis on agricultural technical education and the establishment, in 1959, of the first school of this type in General Conesa. Adopting a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative analyses grounded in heuristic inquiry, the study draws on a range of documentary sources produced by the national and provincial governments, the regional press, and the institutional records of the school and the Protective Committee of the Agricultural Technical Basic Cycle. The findings indicate that, during the period under study, secondary education in Río Negro was shaped by liberal-developmentalist principles that conceived education as a tool for economic development and human resource formation. Although progress was made in the bureaucratization and professionalization of the provincial educational system, reactive policies predominated and proved insufficient to reduce regional inequalities. Within this context, the expansion of secondary education primarily favored the establishment of daytime and evening commercial schools, whereas the Agricultural Technical School of General Conesa remained, from 1959 onward, the only institution of its kind, aimed at fostering youth retention in rural areas and promoting the rationalization of agricultural production.