Second Half of School Year Starts
With More Promises of Infrastructure
After two weeks of beaches, bike rides and shopping malls, nearly one million school children across the country will return to classes today. Although some will return to new classrooms, others will find themselves still without desks.
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Government Announces
Ten-Year Sustainable Forest Plan
The Environment and Energy Ministry on Friday announced a plan to dedicate $433 million to the conservation of one million hectares (2.5 million acres) of forestland in sustainable development areas over the next ten years.
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Tico Press Says Columbia Better,
With Simple and Effective Soccer
A better Colombian team, with “simple and effective” soccer, buried the Costa Rican dream of classifying for the semifinals of the Copa America soccer tournament, but the experience was worth it, Costa Rican press said yesterday after Costa Rica’s 2-0 loss to Colombia on Saturday.
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Computer Classes for People Over 45
Participants will learn about Advanced Internet during this week-long course, 8 a.m.-noon, at the Omar Dengo Foundation in San José. Info: 257-6654.

New York Jazz Trio in Concert
New York Jazz trio performs today at 7:30 p.m. and on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, at the Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center in Barrio Dent. Info: 207-7555.

Second Half of School Year Starts
With More Promises of Infrastructure

After two weeks of beaches, bike rides and shopping malls, nearly one million school children across the country will return to classes today. Although some will return to new classrooms, others will find themselves still without desks.

However, Ministry of Education officials have kicked off the second 100 days of the school year by restating their commitment to ensuring all students eventually get a place to sit.

Education Minister Manuel Bolaños has promised 38,000 desks to schools in need by the end of this year, adding to the 27,000 desks already distributed during the first half of the year. The cost of each new desk is approximately ¢7,000 ($16).

At the start of the school year, many schools struggled with serious deficits in desks and failing infrastructure (TT, Feb. 13).

Last week, Bolaños and Administrative Vice-Minister Marlen Gómez met with school representatives from throughout the country to analyze the school system’s infrastructure needs.

Many available resources are not being used because of uncertainty about the legal status of much of the property on which schools sit, according to the Education Ministry.

Bolaños said that in the visits he has made to schools throughout the country, he has found three in five institutions are not located on school-owned property.

“This legal uncertainty prohibits (infrastructure) moneys from being used, because it would be constructing in a precarious state,” he said.

In Puntarenas, for example, ¢300 million ($681,000) is available for construction, but is not being used.

Gómez said the ministry has committed funds to buying school properties by 2005 and has established a timeline for school construction projects to begin throughout the country within the next six months.

One new school has already been completed and will be celebrated today. After previously holding classes in a “shed,” students of Colegio Jorge Volio, in the southern region’s San Vito de Coto Brus, will be welcomed back from mid-year break with a new building complete with science and language laboratories, a library and a lunchroom.

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