Education in Costa Rica (by Justin)

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The school system in Costa Rica is rather large considering the size of the country, covering more than 25%!o(MISSING)f the population of the country in some facet, either through employment as instructors or attending the schools themselves as students. Before the 1949 constitution abolished the army, one of Costa Rica's proudest claims was that the number of teachers overshadowed the number of soldiers. Education has been an important element in the pride of the country for sometime, even though recent studies have shown that the fruits of the educational system and the funds being put into it aren't quite as sunny as many Ticos would like. For instance, the average number of years of education for the Costa Rican adult (5.7) is lower than Panama (6.6), Trinidad-Tobago (8.4), Colombia (7.5) and Cuba (8.0). (Manuel Delgado, "Desarrollo sin rostro humano," Rumbo , Nov. 1, 1994, pp. 28-31.) Not only that, but as the study shows, as of 1994, Costa Rica invested less funds per capita into the school systems than the majority of other Central American countries. While Ticos say that education is important, there can still be improvements made in order to better the system to the point where the priority placed on education intersects the quality of the system in reality.
A typical Costa Rican child enrolls in school at about 6 years and 3 months, although the age can vary to some degree. The parents also have the option, however, to enroll a child in the pre-school system at about 4 years of age if so desired. All students are required to wear uniforms so that they are not judged by the quality of the clothes their parents can afford. The typical school day varies according to my host mother, but her 10-year-old daughter attends school for 5 hours a day (from Monday to Friday, of course), a little bit less than the 8 am to 3 pm 7-hour schedule that we are accustomed to. As I mentioned a bit earlier, the school week is a 5-day affair, assuming that the teachers don't have what my host mother calls a "reunion" (meeting), of which there are too many, according to her. Although their purpose is to help better the educational system, their sheer number evidently leads to a decrease in the quality of education that the students receive.
While Costa Ricans are proud of their schools, there is still room for improvement. They still claim to have the highest literacy rate amongst Central America, but that may not last if they don't implement some changes to raise the years of education for the average Costa Rican adult to the standards currently being set by Trinidad-Tobago and Cuba.

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Photos

School in San Joaquín
All public schools in Costa Rica are named after a different country. The school in San Joaquín is called "Escuela Estados Unidos de América."

School in Heredia
The school in Heredia is called "Escuela República la Argentina."

Snack Time
Costa Rican students line up for a snack at school.