MEETING and Greeting: President Oscar Arias chatted with Mayela Hernández and her daughter Lesly and checked out their arts and crafts yesterday after a special weekly Cabinet meeting held in Alajuelita, a town in the hills south of San José. The town was celebrating the 100 th anniversary of its patron saint, Cristo de Esquipulas.

A broken air conditioner producing “unbearable” working conditions led employees at Liberia Hospital's pharmacy, in the northwestern Guanacaste province, to go on strike yesterday, according to National Union of Social Security Workers (UNDECA) spokeswoman María José Núñez.

By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net

Incoming sixth-graders getting ready to start school in February got a pleasant surprise yesterday: Public Education Minister Leonardo Garnier announced that starting this year, the students will no longer be required to take national tests in order to enter high school.

Instead, the exams – now worth 60% of the overall score educators use to determine whether a sixth-grader gets promoted, with the remaining 40% coming from their average grades – will be given to a randomly selected group of students each year with the sole purpose of giving the ministry data about what students are learning.

Garnier, who made the announcement during President Oscar Arias' Cabinet meeting, held yesterday in Alajuelita, a mountain town south of San José, said the National Council for Superior Education made the decision this week after studying the issue. The minister said his visits to schools last year and conversations with teachers and students showed him that because preparation for, and execution of, the standardized tests varied wildly from school to school, they required a huge investment of time and money without providing reliable results.

Also, because students' classroom grades were worth only 40% of their year-end score, students and teachers alike were neglecting the sixth-grade curriculum in favor of drilling on test content, Garnier said.

Results from the test given to a random sampling of students will be used to identify students' weaknesses and design teacher training courses, according to a statement from the ministry.

Public school students also take mandatory graduation tests, called exámenes de bachillerato, at the end of high school. Though these exams are controversial and teachers' unions have called on the ministry to eliminate them, Garnier has expressed no plans to do so.

Gas prices continued to decline yesterday as the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) approved the third price reduction so far this year, according to a statement from ARESEP.

Meanwhile, a previous approved decrease went into effect today. The price of one liter of super gas dropped from ¢488 ($0.95) to ¢475 ($0.92), while one liter of regular gas dropped from ¢460 ($0.89) to ¢447 ($0.87). Additionally, the price of one liter of diesel fuel dropped from ¢364 ($0.71) to ¢349 ($0.68), according to an ARESEP statement.

The third reduction will bring the price of super gas down to ¢453 ($0.88) per liter, regular gas to ¢425 ($0.83) per liter and diesel to ¢335 ($0.65) per liter, the statement said. These prices will go into effect as soon as they are published in the official government daily La Gaceta. ARESEP planned to send the approval to the National Printer today.

Falling gas prices are reflective of trends on international markets, the statement said. Unseasonably warm temperatures in some parts of the United States have decreased the demand for fuels, causing prices to drop.

-Tico Times

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

A broken air conditioner producing “unbearable” working conditions led employees at Liberia Hospital's pharmacy, in the northwestern Guanacaste province, to go on strike yesterday, according to National Union of Social Security Workers (UNDECA) spokeswoman María José Núñez.

The pharmacy is located in a small, enclosed space that becomes stiflingly hot under Guanacaste's high temperatures. Its air conditioner broke six months ago, and hospital officials have said they ordered a replacement part from Japan to fix it but have done nothing to remedy the situation in the meantime, according to a statement from UNDECA. The Tico Times was unable to reach the hospital yesterday for comment.

In addition to creating miserable conditions for workers, the heat could potentially ruin medicines that must be stored in cool temperatures, Núñez said.

“This situation is very serious because in Liberia it is very hot, and the infrastructure of the pharmacy multiplies the heat,” Núñez said, adding that workers will continue the strike until a solution to the problem is found. In the meantime, patients are getting their prescriptions filled elsewhere.