With a multi-sector national mobilization through the streets of the capital of Costa Rica on August 28, the organizations grouped in the National Dialogue Roundtable and other sectors of civil society are once again fighting to reactivate the process of the National Pact for Public Education. This process began on June 20, 2023, with the aim of improving the conditions of the country’s educational system and, in addition, promoting urgent social changes and a fair tax transformation.
Through this new mobilization, the National Dialogue Roundtable warns once again that the current educational crisis is part of a broader crisis that affects health services, the agri-food sector, the supply of drinking water, citizen security, the environment and human, social and labor rights throughout the country.
“Education today, peace tomorrow”
The slogan “Education today, peace tomorrow” was the slogan under which thousands of people marched in the capital, from Parque de la Merced to Plaza de la Democracia and from the Parapet of the University of Costa Rica to the central headquarters of the State University at a Distance in Sabanilla, at 8:00 a.m.
The official statement from the organizers indicated that “they seek to incorporate a broad agenda that includes various territorial and local demands, and to demonstrate that the greatest civic-political task of our time is the structural tax transformation to attack at its root the main problem of today: inequality.”
Therefore, the mobilizations called for this August 28 and 29 are not limited to a fight in defense of the Costa Rican educational system, since they bring together a very broad social agenda. Among the main demands is compliance with the constitutional mandate to allocate 8% of the GDP to public education.
All sectors met in the Plaza de la Democracia, where they presented the proposal for the National Pact to the Legislative Assembly, in the context of the discussion of the budget for national education, which in 2024 is in the hands of legislators, after the Executive Branch failed to reach an agreement with public universities.
Primary, secondary and public university students delivered to the president of the Legislative Assembly, Rodrigo Arias Sánchez, and to several legislators present, a document with the main demands and proposals to reactivate the process of dialogue and agreement that allows reaching a National Pact for Public Education.
Solutions are urgently needed
In the document addressed to the President of the Republic, the Legislative Assembly and the Ombudsman’s Office, the organizers of the mobilization state that “Solutions are urgently needed to the different causes and manifestations of the current educational crisis.”
The document goes on to point out that “investment in education was reduced in 2023 to 5.2% of GDP, despite the fact that the Political Constitution is clear that 8% of GDP must be allocated to the education system at all levels. This reduction means a setback of almost 20 years. If the current course is not changed, the deterioration will continue to deepen, not only at all levels of the education system, but productivity, quality of human talent and the well-being of society in general will also decrease, thus worsening inequality, social exclusion, violence and authoritarianism.”
The organizations grouped in the National Dialogue Roundtable propose a citizen liaison mechanism to accompany the discussion of the education budget in the Legislative Assembly. They will also launch a citizen consultation through an online form, in which people and organizations from all over the country will be able to propose their ideas to strengthen the education system.
The national mobilization continued on August 29 with regional, cultural and proactive actions in Limón, Río Frío, Liberia, Nicoya, Pérez Zeledón, El Palmar, Ciudad Neily, San Vito, San Carlos, Upala, Puntarenas, Quepos and San José.
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