Pablo Pizzurno (July 11, 1865 - March 24, 1940) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

educator who laid the foundations of the national primary education.

Education and contributions

Pizzurno received his master's degree and began teaching in the Normal School in 1882. Two years later he became a school principal in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and integrated the following year at the National College of Buenos Aires. He served in several institutions at once, creating a chair of pedagogy in school subprefects and helpers and lecturing and writing about education in various publications. In 1887 he was named director of the School of Buenos Aires, and in 1889 he was sent by the National Council on Education to the International Exhibition in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He used the trip to become familiar with the educational techniques used in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, which he detailed in several reports and then applied to the creation in 1890 of the National Institute of Primary and Secondary. In 1893 he founded the magazine ''The New School Teaching''; that vehicle would reform plans such as introducing physical education as part of the curriculum that year. In 1897 he was elected to serve on the commission for renewal of curricula of schools in Buenos Aires, and in 1898 he was appointed inspector of schools under national administration. In 1900, he became the inspector general. In 1902, Pizzurno presented the report to the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

, detailing all study plans and methods applied in the country to date and proposing a comprehensive reform. He worked with the Ministry for the next 30 years, while continuing his work as inspector and writing and teaching. It is commonly believed that the headquarters of the Ministry of Education is named after Argentine Pizzurno palace in his honor, but the building is called Sarmiento Palace. What is called Pizzurno is the little street that is in front of the headquarters.

References

Argentine educators People from Buenos Aires 1865 births 1940 deaths {{Argentina-bio-stub