An important factor that prompts many families to desist from sending their kids to school is the difficulty of access.
• Persons with disabilities
In Costa Rica, 18 % of the population has some disability. 30% of them belong to lower-income households[1]. The regions with the highest percentage of the population with disabilities are in the west of the country, where over 20% has some disability, even 24% in the Central Pacific area[2]. However, the vast majority of special education centers are located in the Larger Metropolitan Area (GAM). In Puntarenas there is 1, and the only one obstante in the province of Limón is located in Guápiles.[3]
Moreover, although Law 7600 – Equal opportunities for persons with disabilities – requires schools to be accessible for people with disabilities, their environment and geography do not always make it feasible.
[1] Data: Conapdis, presentation in congress “100% en el cole”, 2019.
[2] ibidem
[3]http://www.ddc.mep.go.cr/sites/all/files/ddc_mep_go_cr/archivos/oferta_de_servicios_de_educacion_especial.pdf
• Distance
Many children must walk long distances through a complicated topography to arrive at their educational centers or, sometimes, before reaching the nearest bus stop. This difficulty especially affects indigenous people[1]. In other parts of the country, even more centric ones, there is a bus service nearby, however it is so irregular that the kids lose much time waiting for it.
[1] Exclusión Educativa en el Sistema Público Costarricense (Análisis de cinco dimensiones), p 79 (consultado en https://mep.janium.net/janium/Documentos/11229.pdf)
What do we do?
• Incidence
Our 2019 congress drew attention specifically to the challenges the population with disabilities face and what the Ministry of Public Education does to avoid this from being an exclusive factor.
• Scholarships
Part of the scholarships consist in bus passes so the teenagers can attend school without having to walk too long.
• “Al Cole en Bici”
In 2021 we launch our project “Al Cole en Bici” (By Bike to School), together with the Unit for Student Permanence, Reinsertion and Success (UPRE) of the Ministry of Public Education, through which we provide rural colleges in areas with high rates of student exclusion and limited access to bus service with bikes, so the young people in risk of exclusion may attend school.
