by Rod Hughes

Perhaps Costa Rica is turning the corner in its education. This year, 4 out of 5 students taking the high school graduation examinations passed the mathematics portion, traditionally the section that offered them the biggest problem.

In fact, 63 out of every 100 taking the exams passed them, the highest rate in the past dozen years during which scores slipped alarmingly. But math, the mosted feared part, jumped 7.25 percentage points, to 79.23% of those taking the test passing.

The results point to a major effort by teachers and administrators throughout the country for the past decade. And often the exams themselves could be marked down, if not flunked, for faulty questions. For example, 15 questions were tossed this year because of inconsistencies.

Nor were the math questions “dumbed down” this year, according to Deputy Minister of Education Alexandrina Mata who said the exam contained the same proportion of easy medium and difficult questions as in past years.

But not all experts are joining the the back-patting. Edwin Chaves, who heads the School of Mathematics at the National University at Heredia (UNA), worries that Tico high school preparation may not still be good enough. He said UNA only has a 50% pass rate in math classes. And math and science are two subjects important to a country with increasing openings in technology.