Schools - What are the different levels of schooling?

Hi,
  I'm french and live here for almost 7 years. I have no child at school age but basically you have 3 levels here. Fist grade, second grade which are more or less similar to the school in the US and then, university level. What you have to know is :
* If your son doean't speak fluent spanish he will not be able to integrate a local school.
* The study level here is close to the worst one, Argentina being rated number 62 out of 65 countries at the PISA test  ( look at it on Internet if you don't know what it is).
* Your only good option will be a private english/spanish school but prices are pretty high.
* Education is far away of being the prime objective of the local govenment and material conditions are quite bad, without speaking about security problems.

Hope it gives yu a first approach of a non expert in scolarship matters here but somebody who looks around and see the results.........

Best regards and good luck

Kindergarten is called Garden, grades 1-6 are called Primaria, and 7-12 are called Secundaria.  The public schools are low quality so I wouldn't consider going that route.  Most of the private schools are "international" meaning they teach half the day in English, half the day in Spanish (or Castellano as it's referred to here).  My kids (6 and 8 yrs old) arrived speaking no Castellano and within a few weeks had made friends and were getting by with the language.  Within 6 months, they were speaking without a problem.

Schools are easy to find, though the good ones have a waiting list.  You will definitely be able to find something, though you may not get your first choice.  Academics are typically a bit below the U. S. standards (and I assume Europe), but in the better schools it's not a problem.  We have our kids go to Kumon after school to fill in the gaps.

Top notch schools will be about 8,000 or 10,000 pesos per month per child.  Good but inexpensive schools (some schools are less expensive because they are new and have no history, not necessarily because they are lower quality) are about 4,000 per month.  School bus is separate at about 2K/mth. All the schools I know of have a hot lunch program and also a small store (kiosko) on campus for snacks and candy.

Something to note that's different from the U. S. (and probably Europe) is that after school sports are not organized by the school.  Parents (typically moms) are very active with the school and each other, and will arrange sports teams for the kids on their own.  It equates to the same thing - organized sports that happen after school.  However, it's very important that one of the parents gets involved with the school and the other parents or your kids will not find a group to hang with.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my inquiry!  It really helps me to understand and prepare.  Thanks for including pricing so I can also include that in our budgeted expenses.

Just want to clarify a typo in prices above.  We're paying (in December 2014) A$8000 for 2 kids, not one.  Also, A$2000 for 2 kids on the bus.  Hot lunch program is A$1000 for 1 kid (the other prefers to take his lunch).  Our number came up for a better school next year, and the tuition goes up to A$11,000 for 2 kids.