$Unique_ID{COW00970}
$Pretitle{290}
$Title{Costa Rica
Chapter 2E.   Education}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Irving Kaplan}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{education
health
costa
early
students
1970s
population
1980s
ministry
programs}
$Date{1983}
$Log{}
Country:     Costa Rica
Book:        Costa Rica, A Country Study
Author:      Irving Kaplan
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1983

Chapter 2E.   Education

     As early as 1869 the constitution declared the government responsible
for free and compulsory education, but the institutionalization of the
school system did not really begin until the 1880s. The income from coffee
permitted a building program to be undertaken, and the anticlerical
orientation of the political leaders of the time encouraged them to replace
the church-sponsored schools with public, secular education. Church-run
schools and other private institutions remained open, however, in part
because Costa Ricans objected to an end to religious teaching. Despite this
early and auspicious start, education remained rudimentary for most Costa
Rican boys and rarely reached girls. There were improvements in
organization and growth in the numbers of young people educated in the
first four decades of the twentieth century, but real increases in the
numbers of schools, teachers, and pupils did not take place until after
World War II.

     Throughout the earlier period and through most of the modern era, the
conception of education that has guided the state, the educational leaders,
and others has been of a system that turns out cultured, literate persons
who would, among other things, constitute an informed electorate. The
notion of educating a diverse population for a changing society and
economy did not become significant until the 1960s. Even as some of the
goals of education have been changing, the emphasis that Costa Ricans at
all levels give to education has persisted. Political leaders and others
point to the proportion of the budget expended on education-nearly
one-fourth in the early 1980s. Of all the government ministries and
autonomous agencies, none has more employees than the Ministry of Public
Education. These expenditures notwithstanding, teachers in 1983 were not
highly paid. Attempts to reduce expenditures, if they entailed real
reductions in the availability of educational opportunity, would probably
be strongly resisted.

     It cannot be said that the goals of the early visionaries were
achieved. Far too many students dropped out of school before completing the
six years that, until the 1970s, constituted primary education. And many who
did complete it were not very well educated, nor did they retain much of what
they had learned, given the lack of textbooks and trained teachers and the
emphasis on rote learning. Moreover, the benefits derived from a largely
academic education by a peasant or an unskilled worker were limited.

     Costa Rica's literacy rate was estimated in 1973 at a little less than 89
percent for those over 10 years of age and at more than 90 percent in the
early 1980s. There was little difference between the sexes, but a
considerable one between rural and urban dwellers. These estimates were based
on minimal criteria, however; counted as literate were all who had ever gone
to school or could sign their names. In the mid-1970s the minister of public
education, emphasing functional literacy, suggested 30 percent of the
population over age 10 was illiterate, rather than the 11 percent officially
estimated. Even so, the illiteracy rate was lower than that of many comparable
countries in the region.

     Until the early 1970s only primary grades one through six were
compulsory and free. Secondary education was nominally free but not
compulsory. Beginning in 1973 compulsory education was extended through the
ninth grade, in principle encompassing all children between the ages of six
and 15. The extension was a response to the view of many Costa Ricans that
even those students who completed the six-year primary school were not
adequately educated and that some students, as well as Costa Rican society,
might be better served by vocational or technical training after a basic
general education had been acquired. It was not expected that all of the
institutions and teachers would be fully in place to cope with the influx of
new students until the early 1980s.

     Primary schooling, comprising two levels of three years each, continued
to provide a general basic education to all students. Some Costa Rican
observers seemed to think that distinctions in the curriculum ought to be
made at these levels to take into account the different needs and experience
of urban and rural students, but others thought that distinctions would
amount to discrimination and would negate some of the goals of universal
education-to give all Costa Ricans an all-around basic education in
mathematics, science, language, and art, to provide moral and physical
training, and to prepare them for citizenship.

     By the late 1970s and early 1980s there were more pupils enrolled in the
first two levels than there were children between the ages of six and 11,
despite the continued, if much diminished, problem of dropouts. That seemed
to be a consequence of the tendency of some pupils to begin schooling after
the age of six and to complete primary school well after the age of 12.

     The third level, the equivalent of what was formerly the lower level of a
five-year secondary program, had two parts. One, the third level proper,
continued the academic training begun in primary school. If it was completed
and an examination passed, the student went on to another two years of
academic education and, if further examinations were passed and other
requirements met, eventually to higher education. The other part of the third
level was termed diversified education and included a number of programs in
crafts, agriculture, and technical subjects that led to a middle-level
diploma. The diversified program presumably integrated the relatively small
number of public vocational schools that have existed since 1956. Although
many who were enrolled in one of the diversified programs did not go beyond
this level, there were more advanced technical and agricultural courses for
which some of them were eligible. In the late 1970s, when compulsory
attendance in the academic or diversified programs had not yet been fully
instituted, about 40 percent of the age-group between 12 and 15 was enrolled,
a considerable increase over the pre-1973 era and likely to rise still
further. Available data did not indicate the distribution of students between
the academic and diversified programs.

     The fourth level also contained several programs, one of which was
academic. The remainder were technical schools of several kinds. Among the
most numerous and widespread were schools of agriculture and livestock, but
there were also schools for industrial and craft skills, commercial training,
and other specialized fields.

     The oldest university dates from 1940 when the Universidad de Costa Rica
(UCR) was founded on a campus in San Pedro, a suburb of San Jose. The first
university, Santo Tomas, established soon after independence, was closed in
1888. Its Faculty of Law remained in existence, however, and other separate
entities were founded after 1888, e.g., faculties of fine arts, pharmacy,
education, and agriculture. All of these and other newly established ones were
incorporated in the UCR. The core of the university in late 1983 was the
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which provided an education to those who did
not wish a professional degree and a common general education to those who
went on to obtain degrees from the special faculties.

     The demand for higher education in Costa Rica had been overwhelming. The
UCR had fewer than 6,000 students in 1965; by the early 1970s there were
more than 20,000, in part a consequence of the population growth of the 1950s,
in part a product of the growth of the middle class and the urban population
generally. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the student body of the
university numbered between 29,000 and 30,000, despite the opening of the
Universidad Nacional Autonoma (UNA) at Heredia in 1973. The UNA, which started
with 1,000 students, had more than 5,000 in 1974 and over 11,000 by the early
1980s.

     Subsequently, a number of regional university colleges were established,
each of them attached to one of the two universities. Their founding was
partly a response to local demand, but it was also an attempt to relieve the
overcrowding at the two universities in the Meseta Central.

     The Instituto Technologico de Costa Rica was established near Cartago in
the early 1970s to provide technical training at a level below that of
university-educated engineers but well above that of skilled workers. For
example, it has trained construction engineers who have filled a role between
that of a civil engineer and a foreman. There were also programs in industrial
production and maintenance, electronics, and highway construction. A branch
at San Carlos offered training in agriculture and forestry. The number of
students at the institute has been far fewer than that at either of the
universities, somewhat more than 2,000 in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

     The two state-supported universities, the UCR and the UNA, have
incorporated the teacher-training institutions, formerly called normal
schools. There has been some criticism of the depth and quality of education
in these sections of the universities.

     In 1976 the Universidad Autonoma de Centra America (UACA), a private
university, was opened. Despite its much higher tuition and its lack of a
central campus, it attracted as many as 3,200 students in 1978. Its
dependence on private sources of support may have been affected by the
economic difficulties of Costa Rica beginning in the late 1970s and continuing
into the 1980s. In 1982 it was said to have about 2,600 students.

     The founding of the UNA and the UACA reflected not only the apparent
need for more places for students but also dissatisfaction with the quality
and content of education, first at the UCR and later at both the UCR and the
UNA. The establishment of the UNA by the Figueres government was a response
to what was perceived as the elitism of the UCR, its catering to the upper
and upper middle classes, and its remoteness from the social problems that
Figueres and his supporters thought a university ought to address.

     The UCR emphasized lectures, set readings of textbooks, and memorization.
Both the lack of funds and the orientation of the university limited the use
of laboratories, field research, seminars, and the like, although some
faculties, e.g., that of medicine, were considered the best in Central
America. The UCR was also the locus of a good department of microbiology
which, by arrangement with other Central American countries, served as the
department in that field for all Central Americans wishing to specialize it.

     The UNA moved sharply in another direction, stressing group discussions,
social research, and action in the field and focusing on what staff and
students considered to be the socially significant issues. It was not clear,
however, that the discussions and action in the field were grounded in a
disciplined study of relevant bodies of knowledge.

     The UACA took still another tack. Classes were small, and students were
assigned to tutors on a long-term basis. Intellectual demands seemed to be
greater than in either of the other two universities, and, in the mid- and
late 1970s at least, the campus was even less agitated by student political
activity than were the other two universities (see Political Interest Groups,
ch. 4).

     The Universidad Estatal a Distancia, a special facility supported by
the state, was established in 1978. It offered courses for credit through
television. By 1981 there were more than 6,000 students enrolled, most of
them presumably working full-time or unable to afford regular university
costs.

Health

     The incidence of illness and death caused by illness in the early 1980s
was comparatively low, and the availability of medical care and preventive
measures was fairly widespread. Rates of mortality and infant mortality and
life expectancy reflected this situation. The mortality rate in the early
1980s, a little more than four deaths per 1,000 people, was among the lowest
in the world. The infant mortality rate of a little more than 24 per 1,000
live births was slightly higher than the average for all developed countries
but well below the rates of all but a few Latin American countries. Life
expectancy at birth averaged more than 70 years of age; that for women was
about four years higher than that for men.

     The low general and infant mortality rates and the climbing life
expectancy in turn reflected the success of Costa Ricans in combating the
range of communicable and other diseases that commonly have afflicted
the inhabitants, particularly young children, of underdeveloped countries in
tropical and subtropical areas. The success in diminishing the impact of
formerly common diseases and the increasing industrialization and urbanization
of Costa Rica have led to a shift in the nature of the illnesses increasingly
responsible for death and various forms of disability. In short, the incidence
of illnesses of age, e.g., cancer and cardiovascular diseases, has risen.

     Some of the successes, such as the virtual stamping out of malaria,
occurred before the 1970s. It was in that decade, however, that the
reorganization of the health services and a strong effort to institute
preventive measures throughout Costa Rica led to relatively quick results.

     Until 1973 the responsibility for health care was divided among several
organizations, of which the Ministry of Public Health and the Costa Rican
Social Security Fund (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social-CCSS) were the most
important There were also private practitioners and hospital facilities, used
chiefly by members of the upper and upper middle strata. The companies
operating the great banana plantations in the Caribbean lowlands and the
southwest provided medical care to their employees. The National Insurance
Institute, an autonomous government agency, insured industrial workers and
agricultural workers engaged in tasks using power machinery against
work-related and other accidents and loss of pay.

     The Ministry of Public Health was responsible for providing low-cost
medical care (and when necessary, hospitalization) for Costa Ricans who
were not covered by the social security system or the National Insurance
Institute. For those who could not afford any payment, such care was free. The
ministry was also engaged in a preventive medicine program, but its scope and
the numbers of people reached were limited. The CCSS, which ran its own
outpatient clinics and hospitals, was intended to cover all employed persons
in industry and agriculture, but until the early 1970s it chiefly covered
employees in the Meseta Central.

     In 1973 the ministry was redesignated the Ministry of Health and was
reorganized. Its responsibility for preventive medicine and other measures
contributing to the health of the population was expanded. It has retained
some jurisdiction over the provision of curative medicine, but that
responsibility has been carried out in conjunction with its preventive work,
chiefly in the rural areas and, beginning in 1974, in the areas inhabited by
the poorer segments of the urban population. Its hospitals and most of its
outpatient services were transferred to the social security system. The CCSS
has incorporated a much larger segment of the population in its varied
programs, e.g., old age, invalid, and death benefits, and under its new
authority it has extended access to its medical facilities to many who are not
otherwise covered by social security.

     Despite the growth in the number and availability of CCSS facilities,
they had not yet reached the entire population, and, as in most health
delivery systems of this kind, waiting and bureaucratic delays have been
common. There has also been a frequent lack of communication between patients
(usually of the working class and the peasantry) and medical personnel and
their paramedical and bureaucratic assistants (of the upper or lower middle
class). Despite the frustrations, the system has worked with some degree of
effectiveness in delivering curative medicine to a population that had
previously lacked it.

     The decline in the incidence of communicable and other diseases has been
largely the work of the institutions and programs run by the Ministry of
Health in the rural areas and in the urban slums. It was in these areas that
sanitary conditions, e.g., the lack of potable water, malnutrition, and the
presence of diseases preventable by immunization, had generated or contributed
to high incidences of illness and infant mortality.

     The Program of Rural Health began even before the reorganization of the
ministry, having taken over a structure that had managed to eradicate malaria
by 1968. Beginning in 1973 the Ministry of Health established health posts,
which have been responsible for the first level of health care and preventive
practice, and health centers, which have provided support and supervision. A
health post serves a population of from 1,000 to 2,000, some of whom may live
as far as 10 miles away. It is staffed by two persons, one male and one
female-a medical auxiliary, who is expected to have a year's training, and an
assistant, who has four months' preparation. Each, however, spends one day a
month on refresher courses. They are responsible for maintaining records on
every household in the post's area; the records are transmitted to a central
point so that medical personnel are aware when problems arise. These two
persons also maintain systematic immunization of the population, including
vaccinations for diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough and for other
diseases, such as measles, poliomyelitis, and tuberculosis. Health post staff
also vaccinate adults against tetanus and check them for tuberculosis and
hypertension if they have reason to think the adults are suffering from these
problems. In their visits to the homes, they ask a series of questions to
elicit information that may point to the presence of other diseases. If
symptoms suggest diseases such as leprosy, cancer, intestinal worms, or
venereal disease, the patient is referred to the health center. Instruction is
also given on the maintenance of household sanitation and other matters. The
staff can dispense a limited range of medicines for certain symptoms, give
first aid, conduct oral rehydration for diarrhea victims, and provide powdered
milk for expectant mothers who appear to lack adequate nutrition. A major
focus for the health post workers is instruction of others both before and
after childbirth on hygiene, nutrition, and psychological stimulation of the
child.

     An important adjunct to the health posts and centers are the preschool
education and nutrition centers. These are not as numerous as health posts,
but they are quite widespread. They take children from ages two to six, seek
to educate them, provide them with two nutritionally balanced meals daily,
and educate their mothers on matters of nutrition and child rearing. Although
detailed information on the functioning of the community health programs in
urban areas was not available in 1983, these programs, first instituted in
1974, appeared to have taken hold.

     The success of rural health posts and the education and nutrition centers
is in good part attributable to their enlistment of the support of the local
communities in which they exist. Although the government pays the salaries of
the health personnel, provides the pharmaceuticals, and gives other support,
the land and facilities for the health posts and the education centers are
provided and built by the communities through their elected committees. The
education and nutrition centers also have committees that organize the
transportation of supplies, maintain the buildings, supply cooks, and the
like.

     In addition to the Ministry of Health, other agencies have played a
role in the prevention of disease. For example, clean water has been brought
to much of the population, thus helping to decrease the incidence of
gastroenteritic diseases, hepatitis, and typhoid. The Ministry of Public
Education has furnished shoes to those who could not afford them in order to
diminish parasitic invasions.

     The costs of providing curative and preventive health care to Costa
Ricans are great, and there were considerable problems in meeting those costs
in the late 1970s and early 1980s as shortfalls in government revenues
reflected a decline in the economy. Thus, although the CCSS was, in
principle, self-supporting, it did receive a government subsidy. Moreover,
part of its income came from government contributions on behalf of its
employees, and these were often paid late. Another threat to the continuing
success of the health maintenance program was the decline in the living
standard of the poorest segment of the population. Instruction in nutrition
and even some help in providing food were undermined by the inability of some
Costa Ricans to buy what they needed. Malnutrition, a significant
contributing factor to ill health and infant mortality, had been sharply
reduced through the 1970s, but there were indications in 1983 that its
incidence might be climbing. Thus, the Institute for Health Research of the
UCR reported that there had been an increase in infant mortality and in the
number of babies having low birth weights, in part the consequence of
malnourishment of expectant mothers.

                                    * * *

     A very useful, if sometimes debatable, description of Costa Rican
society and culture is provided by Richard, Karen, and Mavis Biesanz in their
book, The Costa Ricans. Mitchell Seligson's Peasants of Costa Rica and the
Development of Agrarian Capitalism furnishes a thorough exposition from an
interesting perspective of the history and modern situation of the peasantry.
In Cannabis in Costa Rica, William Carter and his American and Costa Rican
associates deal with the social, psychological, and medical aspects of the
widespread use of marijuana by working-class males in Costa Rica. (For
further information and complete citations, see Bibliography.)