First in a series about the challenges facing the country’s public-education system.

By Katherine Stanley Tico Times Staff

Greivin, Ariana and Steven are in the second grade. They share, as do many kids their age, an uncanny ability to morph from studious angels into screaming streaks of joy at the sound of a recess bell, and are driven by a profound, obsessive love for colored pencils and markers. What’s more, they all go to school less than an hour from the capital of Costa Rica, a nation known for focusing on schools instead of warfare and for its extraordinary literacy rate.

The lives of these three eager kids are significantly different as well, and their experiences when they head to school each day reflect the challenges facing their country’s vaunted education system. They live and study, respectively, in a crowded shantytown, bustling downtown San José, and a tranquil mountain farming community. The quality of their instruction varies depending on those locations, and on how much their families can afford to contribute to their “free” education. According to national data, only one of them will finish high school; staff members’ comments indicate two of the three are statistically unlikely to stay in school past age 12.

Proposals to improve the country’s schools were a crucial element of the recent presidential campaigns, and President Oscar Arias has made education one of his top priorities. Issues being debated among Cabinet ministers, legislators, educators, journalists and parents include education funding, infrastructure, curricular design, teacher training and standardized test results.

The ongoing adult conversations make one wonder: what do the schools look like from the students’ point of view?

The Tico Times spent a day with each of these three second-graders during the past few months, following them from the first bell to the commute home – a stretch of time that, in some cases, proved to be relatively short.

Greivin Cruz, 8, attends Escuela Finca La Caja in La Carpio, an impoverished neighborhood in western San José; he walks to school each day along bumpy dirt paths through a community where Costa Ricans and Nicaraguan immigrants live in often-improvised dwellings, until he reaches a school crammed with more than 2,000 students.

A comfortable minibus takes Ariana Solano, 7, from her home in northern San José to the Escuela Buenaventura Corrales, better known as the Escuela Metálica, a downtown landmark next to the lush Parque España. Renowned for its architecture and for the quality of its instruction, its alumni include ex-Presidents, Cabinet ministers and other illustrious Ticos.

Steven Montenegro, 8, walks past cow pastures and potato fields – if he’s lucky, he might catch a ride on an oxcart – to Escuela Llano Grande de Pacayas in a town of the same name. One of 12 children, he wants to grow up to be an administrator at the dairy cooperative Dos Pinos.

A day spent with each student provided hints as to the significant achievements Costa Rica has made in terms of bringing education to hard-to-reach areas, as well as the problems still to be faced.