Costa Rica’s schools have chronically suffered from a shortage of desks and chairs for their students, but the expansion of an agreement between the Public Security Ministry and the Public Education Ministry (MEP) through which prisoners build furniture for schools seeks to end this problem by having prisoners build 80,000 desk-and-chair sets by the end of next year, according to a statement from MEP.

Nationwide, there is a shortage of 30,000 sets, especially in San Carlos, in north-central Costa Rica; Talamanca, in the southern Caribbean; and Guápiles and Turrialba, on the Caribbean slope, the statement said.

The expanded agreement also allows the Education Ministry’s regional offices to collect and distribute furniture to nearby schools. In the past, schools far from San José have had to wait to receive furniture from the capital, the statement said.

Each desk-and-chair set costs ¢11,900 ($23), while the sets of one table and four small chairs used in preschools cost ¢25,800 ($50). This school year, MEP’s spending on furniture will reach ¢600 million ($1.16 million), according to the statement.

Education Minister Leonardo Garnier told The Tico Times during a recent interview that the notorious desk shortage is more of a logistical problem than a financial one. When school starts every February, schools across the country complain of kids sitting on the floor because furniture has not arrived on time (TT, July 7).

-Tico Times