A Presidential Address on Teachers' Day
President Javier Milei will lead an official event this Friday marking Teachers' Day, delivering a speech before educators and students. The gathering is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at the National Teachers' Library, housed in the Sarmiento Palace, which serves as the headquarters of the Education Secretariat. The president will address the educational community amid an ongoing debate over the state of the school system, student performance and working conditions in the sector.[S1]
The event carries particular weight because it follows the release of the 2025 PISA results, which placed Argentina 72nd among the 91 countries assessed and marked its weakest showing in twenty years. The country scored 393 points in science, 389 in reading and 367 in mathematics. Compared with the 2022 edition, those figures represent declines of 13, 12 and 11 points respectively. Education Secretariat officials said the evaluation reflects school trajectories that began in 2013 and blamed the deterioration in learning on policies applied by previous administrations.[S1]
Expectations are that Milei will use the occasion to discuss the direction of his education policy and to criticize Kirchnerism over the results. The government has linked the outcomes to cumulative decline under earlier years and presidencies, arguing that the assessments capture students' prior educational path. In that context, the president's message to teachers and students is seen as a key signal of his diagnosis and the guidelines he intends to set for the sector.[S1][S2]
The PISA Numbers Behind the Speech
The presidential address arrives with the latest education indicators as the main backdrop. Argentina again showed a sharp setback in education according to the 2025 PISA results released on Tuesday. Fifteen-year-old students performed worse than in the 2022 and 2018 assessments in mathematics, reading and science. The most alarming figure appears in mathematics: only 24 percent of Argentine students reach the basic level of competence, while the average across countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development stands at 65 percent. That means roughly three out of every four students cannot solve simple operations applied to everyday situations.[S2]
Argentina scored 367 points in mathematics, down from 378 in 2022, a drop of 2.9 percent. That result left the country in 75th place among 91 participating nations and eighth among the 13 Latin American countries included in the assessment. Performance also fell in reading and science, in an international context marked by a broad decline in learning. The OECD recorded its worst historical averages in all three areas evaluated. In Argentina's case, fewer than one in twelve students reaches the basic level in all three subjects at the same time.[S2]
The ORT Episode and the Criminal Complaint
The presentation takes place two weeks after the address Milei gave on August 27 to fourth- and fifth-year students at the ORT secondary school. He had been invited to speak about ethics and artificial intelligence as part of the institution's 90th anniversary, but during his intervention he also criticized the opposition and the press and encouraged students to jeer at journalists. He also developed religious concepts tied to his political and economic ideas and referred to the supposed satanic origin of Marxism. His remarks drew criticism from parents, alumni, political leaders and intellectuals.[S1][S2]
The controversy later reached the courts. Lawyers José Lucas Magioncalda and Juan Martín Fazio filed a criminal complaint against Milei for alleged proselytism and incitement to political hatred inside an educational establishment. The complainants argued that the president urged students to boo journalists and that he abused the asymmetric relationship between the president and the pupils. The filing raises the possible commission of offenses covered by article 248 of the Penal Code and article 3 of Law 23.592. The organization Reset Republicano also filed a criminal complaint against Milei at Comodoro Py for the alleged crimes of abuse of authority, violation of the duties of a public official and discrimination. The case was assigned to Federal Court No. 12.[S1][S2]
There were also positions defending the president. La Libertad Avanza lawmaker Sabrina Ajmechet rejected the claim that indoctrination had occurred.[S2]
Why Teachers' Day Falls on September 11
In Argentina, Teachers' Day is commemorated every September 11 in homage to Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, who died on that date in 1888. Sarmiento served as president of the nation between 1868 and 1874 and played a central role in expanding the Argentine education system. During his administration he promoted the creation of schools, teacher training and various policies aimed at broadening access to education. The date seeks to recognize the work of teachers and their contribution to instruction and the formation of children and adolescents across the country.[S1]
