Out every 10 Costa Ricans between the ages of 18 and 24, three enroll in either a public or private university, reported Costa Rica’s leading daily, La Nacion, today. This percentage nearly doubled between 1984 and the year 2000.

This translated into 155,000 students out of 577,000 of university enrollment age. Costa Roca’s education system has raised basic literacy to 93% and the nation prides itself on providing a well educated labor pool to multi-national companies.

While many third-world nations would be satisfied with such figures, Alexandrina Mata, Vice Minister of Education, told the paper that the “country must do more” because “the majority of high school graduates don’t go on to any higher education institution.”

The demand on public institutions among high school graduates for education has led to most being rejected due to a lack of facilities and to a proliferation of private universities. For example, the state-run Costa Rica Technological Institute last year accepted only 1,951 for enrollment, out of 12,000 applicants while the University of Costa Rica rejected 21,000 who could not meet the standards of its entrance exams and a high enough high school academic record.