Las competencias en la educación peruana: ¿por qué y para qué?

The objective of this study is to determine the reasons why we use competencies in basic education in our country. We carefully analyze the National Curriculum for Basic Education prepared by the Ministry of Education (2016) (Minedu) in the period 2012-2016. To answer the question in the title of the article, we use 12 questions that have to do with the meaning of the category’s curriculum, competence, ability, learning standard, ability, attitude, performance, as well as the approach to learning, teaching and the evaluation. We use the text by Zabala & Arnau (2007) How to learn and teach skills? 11 key ideas as a reference, in order to contrast the Peruvian proposal. Regarding the analysis, the coherence and consistency of the use of the mentioned categories is described and determined. We also identify the presence and absence of arguments in the document. The type of research is phenomenological, since it seeks to describe and analyze the meaning of the categories used.