The Auditor General of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) noted that the Department of Educational Planning of the Ministry of Education distributed materials that could not be used by all institutions due to a lack of resources or because their contents were not suitable for the children.

The project with the biggest drawbacks was called "Bicentennial Materials", undertaken by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (DOCyE) under Planning. Out of the 12 schools visited by the Audit, in half they ensured that the material "was not suitable for use in the classroom", and found that half received the text books "during May" the month of the commemoration of the Revolution of 1810.

It’s noteworthy that initially, the proposal consisted of sending paper documents, accompanied by worksheets and picture cards for students in kindergarten and the primary level. In February 2010, prior to printing, the Ministry of Education reported that "they were not going to be released", sparking conflicts between DOCyE and Ministry officials. After the intervention of the Ombudsman of the City and the Education Commission of Science and Technology of the Buenos Aires Legislature, "it was decided to distribute the material in digital form by pdf".

Half of the establishments indicated that they "did not have technological resources" therefore, "copies were made in CDs for some selected impressions that made the class possible." However, the detailed report, that "the purchase of the CD's, printer ink cartridges, and reams of paper were limited to the availability of resources of each institution."

Mandatory Modification of the Contents of the Middle Level

As for modifying contents of the curricula of the middle level (project affecting the subjects: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics, Geography, and Language, among others), the report notes that "not all departments have adopted the changes "that have been mandatory since 2009, and that" there were institutions that chose to select only some of the new content and apply partial modifications." The AGCBA stressed that "no instances of monitoring and support that ensured actual knowledge on the teachers’ part to achieve an accurate implementation is reflected in the improvement of the supply of the middle schools in the city."

Material for English Classes
 
The Buenos Aires Audit reviewed the project of the Directorate of Foreign Languages, also under the aegis of Planning, which consisted of the distribution of boxes of materials in English for first graders; the content was a dictionary, two books with short stories, and a deck of cards for each student, and an music player for each school.

Of the 10 schools surveyed, "Five noted that some contents were not suitable to work with first graders, because the level was very advanced for the skills of children that age." Moreover, in most schools "players could not be used due to the low power of the speakers and failures in reading the CD's."

Among the Many Mistakes

One of the proposals of the DOCyE was well received in the 22 establishments visited by the Audit. This is a DVD, distributed to teachers in rooms of 2 year old kindergarteners, "to guide the work of the leadership team, with teaching suggestions enriching the play and learning activities of the children." The testimonies collected in the report, approved this year on 2009 data, indicate that "due to the implementation of these materials changes in the practices of the teachers were introduced," and that "it was a valuable contribution for teachers that did not have previous experience.”