Ei-iE

Education International Latin America (EILA) stood alongside its Costa Rican affiliates, the ANDE and SEC, at the launch of the Go Public! Fund Education campaign in the country on 25 and 26 March.

The launch was attended by both institutional representatives and the unions’ rank and file and mid-level leaders. The campaign’s message was clear: the government must invest more in public education and commit to delivering quality public learning environments in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica at a crossroads

“This country has a choice to make, and we are running out of time,” insisted Gilda Montero, President of the ANDE and a member of Education International’s Executive Board. “Either we remain in a situation of decline, with low investment in education, or we choose the path of supporting growth in public education, supporting and respecting its teachers.” Montero also underlined the particularly strong impact of Costa Rica’s education crisis on women, who make up 80% of the country’s education workforce.

Yorgina Alvarado, General Secretary of the SEC and Vice President of the EILA Regional Executive Board, highlighted the success of the mobilisations led by the unions in Costa Rica, including the launch of the Go Public! Fund education campaign. She also underlined that the public education policy proposal put forward by teachers and education workers reflected the UN Recommendations for a strong and resilient teaching profession.

Replacing fiscal savings and debt repayment with investment in education

The ANDE and SEC were clear in their demands to the representatives of the authorities, government, and political parties attending the event at the Costa Rican Bar Association on 25 March: the country must move away from the budget restraints recommended or imposed by international financial institutions and abide by constitutional law, which states that 8% of GDP must be invested in education. Unfortunately, the government of Rodrigo Chávez has reduced investment to just over half, with dire consequences for schools. Teachers’ salaries have been frozen for five years due to the Law for Strengthening Public Finances, which prohibits pay rises until 2027, excluding this issue from collective bargaining negotiations.

Applying the UN Recommendations on the teaching profession

Costa Rican trade unions, together with Education International, represented by its regional office and EILA Regional Executive member José Olivera, spoke emphatically to government, UNESCO, and ILO representatives about the need to apply the United Nations Recommendations on the teaching profession. “Education International and its affiliates have accepted each and every one of the recommendations. We are ready to implement them here in Costa Rica and in every other country around the world,” stressed Angelo Gavrielatos of Education International during the event.

José Olivera emphasised that Latin America has a shortage of 3.2 million teachers, according to UNESCO. He explained how the Go Public! campaign had helped FENAPES, in Uruguay, to raise its demands for national pay increases and full budget execution in the education sector. Latin America is widely impacted by the under-execution of education budgets, which often results in pay freezes. Olivera thanked Costa Rican unions and EILA for the solidarity they have shown during years of union persecution and austerity, helping Uruguayan teachers to ‘remain standing’.

Gabriela Bonilla, Director of the EILA regional office, gave a presentation on the United Nations Recommendations on the teaching profession, highlighting the relevance of recommendations 7 and 55 to promote debt cancellation and stop the austerity measures that have stifled the country’s public budget, as well as recommendation 19, which stresses the need to guarantee job stability for teachers, as more than 50% of teachers in Costa Rica are on temporary contracts. “UN recommendation 55 calls for the relief and forgiveness of countries’ foreign debt, as many governments limit their role to administering foreign debt. They administer debt payment schedules rather than making social investments, so that they can show a surplus and take on more debt. They do not promote tax justice that would guarantee resources for social policy, including education policy. That’s why recommendation 55 opens the way for governments to resume their role as public policy managers and guarantors.”

As a result of the events to launch the Go Public! campaign, the SEC and ANDE committed to developing a campaign plan for the next 12 months, coinciding with the electoral campaign for the general elections in February 2026.