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Evaluating Country Programmes
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33% had some primary schooling, while 58% completed primary school. About 22%
of this cohort completed secondary education, and 15% had some university training.
There were only 17 public high schools in the country, all in the main urban centres,
so secondary education was much more common for urban children. Higher
education was a recent phenomenon in Costa Rica. The University of Costa Rica was
established in 1941, though teacher colleges and some schools of the university
had existed earlier as independent units.
Besides the broad geographic coverage of Costa Rican education, the other
notable feature of the education system was its equality of access and educational
attainment for women. In 1950, attendance rates were slightly higher for females
than for males through high school. Women also outnumbered men at university
level (in contrast to the situation at that time in most of Latin America), because of
large numbers of women training to be teachers. The high level of women’s education
probably contributed significantly to the rapid improvement in health conditions,
once modern approaches were disseminated, and to the rapid spread in
contraceptive use for family planning in the 1960s.
Development, 1945-95
Since 1945, Costa Rican production has increased steadily. The country suffered
a severe recession in 1980-82 but otherwise has had almost uninterrupted
growth of gross domestic product (GDP). Total production increased ninefold in
45 years. Some of the growth came from increased employment, but much of it
came from better productivity. Output per worker more than doubled. Productivity
increased across all sectors of the economy, linked presumably to the increased
use of scientific knowledge, expansion of infrastructure, and improved organisational
techniques – all areas where USAID programmes sought to contribute.
Costa Rica has followed the usual course of developing countries. Table 11.1
summarises the trend in the sectoral structure of employment during 1950-95.) The
labour force quadrupled over the period and its structure changed dramatically.
The share of agriculture in total employment declined sharply and continually, falling
from 55% of the employed labour force in 1950 to 21% in 1994. The total agricultural
work-force continued to grow until the mid-1980s, though at a slower rate than
in other sectors. Manufacturing employment grew rapidly, climbing from 11% of the
labour force to 18 per cent. The largest shift was into service employment: from 34%
of the labour force to 60 per cent. Government services in particular flourished, rising
from 6% to 19% of the labour force between 1950 and 1984, before receding to
15% by 1994.
Infrastructure
Dramatic improvements have taken place in Costa Rica’s internal transportation
and communication systems, as well as in its interaction with the rest of the
OECD 1999