Costa Rica Plans to Install Internet Access in Schools

In order to reduce the digital divide and have better teaching tools, the government of Costa Rica announced a plan to install access to the Internet in every public school in the country.

At present 4,800 public schools have access to the Internet and this year will reach 100 percent with the installation of the service in the 151 that still do not have it, the state-owned telephone and electric company ICE said in a communique.

The connections, most of them broadband, are part of a joint project of ICE, the Public Education Ministry and the Science and Technology Ministry.

"We are committed in matters of education to reducing the digital divide," Education Minister Leonardo Garnier said in a communique, in which he also noted "the importance of this firm for the future of education in Costa Rica".

Costa Rica, a country of 4.5 million inhabitants, has around 940,000 students in public school.

The investment of Costa Rica in education is 7 percent of GDP and nearly 98 percent of the populace can read and write, according to official figures.

More than 90 percent of children complete primary education and 86 percent go on to attend high school, though the dropout rate at the secondary level is 11 percent.

Source: IANS