By Rod Hughes

Minister of Public Education Leonardo Garnier is rolling up his sleeves to battle the triple-headed dragon of bureaucratic chaos, corruption and favoritism in the hiring of teachers, reports the English-language newspaper The Tico Times in an exclusive, in-depth front page article today. This is a serious subject in a country that prides itself on its public education system

Yesterday, Costa Rica’s leading daily, La Nacion, featured a front page story about a Civil Serice protest of alleged favoritism and corruption in the contracting of teachers, revellations that resulted in the hasty resignations of the two top officials in the ministry personnel department. But The Tico Times story indicates that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

La Nacion quoted Civil Service chief Jose Joaquin Arguedas in charging that the proliferation of temporary teaching posts, accounting for an amazing 40% of available classroom assignments, has been converted into a kind of “booty.” He alleged that the Ministry’s lack of controls allows “appointment by convenience” to classrooms, at the whim of a few officials. He added that often vacancies are not reported to Civil Service for oversight.

But antiquated procedures also account for serious disorder, reports The Tico Times. Teachers are notified of their assignments by telegrams sent only a few days before classes are to begin, according to the weekly. Some telegrams never arrive, some arrive late and teachers who do receive them on time have scant time to prepare for classes. And, if that were not bad enough, some posts go vacant through bureaucratic error while some teachers find themselves assigned to two different jobs, someimes in different areas.

And the really bad news for teachers is that the Ministry of Finance pays their salaries–but the ministry’s computer programs are not compatible with the Education Ministry’s that record teacher payment rolls, so this data must be laboriously hand-entered into Finance Ministry records. This results in errors, confusion and late payments.

Minister Garnier readily admits these defects and vows to bring order, unlike most of his recent predecessors who tended to gloss them over.