UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

(40.5) We stubbornly refuse to squander our resources on maintaining an army of soldiers, since on several
occasions in the history of our continent soldiers have sullied democracy and bloodied their hands with the
sufferings of their humblest brothers and sisters. Instead we have marshalled an invincible army of peace, an army
of teachers and professors with a sound academic background and permanent refresher training in both their
subjects and their methods. They are sent all over the country to build and re-create – along with our children and
youth – scientific knowledge, technology and art.
(40.6) Entrenched in the classroom and with blackboards, laboratories, exercise books and textbooks as their
only weapons, my people fought a fierce battle to ensure for every Costa Rican child real and effective access to
educational computer software, seen as instrumental in the active, creative and critical construction of knowledge.
Ninety per cent of our secondary schools are equipped with computer laboratories where young people, instead of
being passive users of existing programs, are the architects of new thought processes worked out with the help of
computer programming and robotics. This outstanding achievement, of which we are justly proud, was nevertheless
not obtained without cost. On the contrary, it is the product of a mammoth economic effort by the national
government and the active participation of parents, who collected the necessary resources so that their children
could be the knights in armour of technology and knowledge in school computer laboratories, able more surely and
successfully to face the challenges of the coming century. To achieve that goal, we even had to confront the
arrogant irresponsibility of the foreign company providing the computer equipment, its disregard for contractual
obligations, and the chorus of associates echoing that arrogance.
(40.7) Therefore, as this millennium draws to a close – and uncertainty and anxiety, paradox and hope are all
emerging from the maelstrom of accelerated change and unparalleled scientific and technological growth, typical of
the times we live in – we Costa Ricans are renewing our faith in education as the best path by far to the essential
goal of the full development of human capabilities, before any other social value. We are therefore doing our
utmost to apply nationwide the model of “leader schools” currently emerging in Costa Rica, thanks to the
generosity of the Netherlands and UNESCO’s technical assistance. For the year 2000 we are determined to enhance
it as part of our Schools of Excellence programme. In these schools – along with innovative teaching strategies and
the enhancement of curricula at “leader schools” – we shall seek concurrently to extend the school day and offer
such additional subjects as the graphic, musical and industrial arts, physical training and civic education; to teach a
second language, now available to 50% of our pupils; to encourage the participatory and critical organization of
parents as those primarily responsible for the education of their children; and to involve local communities by
giving them a prime role in administering education.
(40.8) Because we believe in education as an irreplaceable pillar of the genuine and integral development of our
people, the Costa Rican Government has officially decreed that civic education and the culture of peace should be
priority education activities, central features of the curriculum and a daily classroom experience. As we know, it is
not enough for schools to produce citizens who, in order to step out with confidence on the uncertain paths of the
new century, are just well-supplied with scientific, technological, artistic and humanistic knowledge; that is
necessary but certainly not the whole story. Education must also fashion men and women of integrity who are very
much alive to the principles of solidarity and wholly committed to peace and justice, to unfettered democracy, to
freedom and to supreme human values.
(40.9) In the school year beginning in February 2000, Costa Rica will extend civic education in all primary and
secondary schools through teacher training and an unprecedented, persistent drive in the press and on television
and radio, with the generous support of the country’s private sector. For this enterprise we shall be using the
excellent “Culture of Peace Collection”, comprising audio cassettes and books of stories, comic strips and booklets
of activities admirably prepared by UNESCO and Radio Nederland. For this purpose, the Costa Rican Government
will be seeking additional funds in order to obtain more copies and distribute them to every school in the country.
(40.10) Costa Rica proudly shows the world its considerable achievements in education as the outcome of huge
sacrifice and effort over more than a century. The goals achieved have owed nothing to chance or to windfalls, but
reflect the resolve and painstaking work of a people which, despite extreme poverty, has since emerging as a State
made education its fundamental priority. Historically, Costa Rica has devoted a great portion of its scanty
economic resources to education, deliberately and expressly abandoning other areas – unnecessary if not
prejudicial to full human development – and on which others have perhaps squandered their wealth. Despite its
achievements, however, Costa Rica is still facing huge obstacles and daunting educational challenges that clearly
outstretch our national capacities. Nonetheless, we are going to face up to them with the same determination and
courage as our grandparents did, while insistently albeit respectfully seeking international support and solidarity, in
which we have every confidence. For we are sure that our achievements – the fruit of sacrifice and our century-old
calling for education, peace and freedom – will not be reduced to a tragic and paradoxical illusion that could
mislead the world community into limiting or refusing assistance and thereby, out of neither desire nor design,
punishing Costa Ricans for their determination and hard work over more than a century of democracy, peace and
educational endeavour.
(40.11) At present, my country’s Government is constantly striving to overcome the injustice that threatens
hundreds of children and youngsters, reduces their chances of effective incorporation in the education system and
unhappily makes it less likely that they will stay on at school, greatly reducing their real chances of success.
Currently, thousands of pupils unable to afford exercise books, textbooks and school uniforms, who need the basic
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