English Teaching Becomes A National Priority in Costa Rica

A few weeks ago, the President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, presented the “Alliance for Bilingualism” (ABi) as a component of a national system that tries to essentially expand the scope of English education in Costa Rica.

The activity was introduced, in conjunction with the Ministers of Education, Edgar Mora; Labor and Social Security, Steven Núñez; Liaison with the Business Sector, André Garnier; and Science, Technology and Telecommunications, Luis Adrián Salazar; and the Executive President of the National Apprenticeship Institute (INA), Andrés Valenciano. Moreover, administrators, business people, college teachers, understudies alongside delegates from different chambers, embassies, and non-legislative associations were present.

An inter-institutional agreement was arrived at to consolidate the beginning of a work pact to foster the activity. The organizations together will work as the system for activities that will connect the plans of the public sector with the help of the private one to advance and guarantee the accomplishment of the technique.

“The idea is to produce a genuine inter-sectorial organization together to broaden the dominance of English and other different languages as a state strategy that guarantees worldwide access to individuals of all ages and from everywhere”, said President Carlos Alvarado.

“The mastery of a second language like English, the lingua franca of the world, empowers Costa Rica’s advancement and projection in 3 fundamental areas that foster the economy: tourism, exports, and foreign investment.  In each of them, English is a key piece of the globalization; in this way, accomplishing bilingualism benefits the nation around the world”, said Jorge Sequeira, Managing Director at Costa Rica’s Investment Promotion Agency, CINDE.

For the moment, the Minister of Liaison with the Business Sector and Coordinator of the Council of Presidential Articulation for Innovation and Competitiveness, André Garnier, clarified that the main joint activities will start in a month time, while the outline of the full strategy to be distributed in November is already finished.

“We have been working since May on the outline of particular activities that label the solid start of the Alliance to accomplish a memorable change in the development of our people, perceiving the learning of English as a device that opens doors, encourages employability and drives financial reactivation”, said Minister Garnier.

Prompt activities

Organizations and Ministries featured the usage of 6 prompt activities that will begin in 2018, to produce the first outcomes throughout the following a year:

1. Endorsement of a ¢ 5 billion for the MTSS Empléate program to be used for specialized preparing of the population.
2. To gain ground in the principal phase of universalization of English instructing in pre-school, covering around 125,000 understudies.
3. In 2018, an instructive strategy will start with a diagnosis of 10,000 students from proficient specialized schools, worldwide baccalaureates, the humanities, sciences, and scholastics from everywhere throughout the nation.
4. Implementation of English language accreditation tests, for the baccalaureate tests given in the 2019-2022 period to achieve an aggregate of roughly 180,000 by 2022.
5. Accreditation of entry and exit levels using universal standard tests (BELT and TOEIC), including all students of INA English Programs. These outcomes will give an unmistakable thought of the dialect aptitudes of their graduates. This procedure will start in December 2018.
6. Application, as of October 2018, of diagnostic tests and accreditations meeting worldwide principles on the 223 INA English educators, along with a preparation intended to raise the quality of English language courses.

First Public-Private Initiative

The Managing Director of the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE), Jorge Sequeira, presented the first public-private activity to join this Alliance. This preparation venture was propelled with help from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security under the Empléate Program and the National Employment Program (PRONAE).

It is a one-year English program for more 1,000 youngsters and young grown-ups, 800 of them living in 15 outside the Greater Metropolitan Area.

For Costa Rica, the Alliance for Bilingualism will include the use of further improvement chances through foreign investment organizations. Today these organizations employ nearly 100,000 Costa Ricans, as a result of the demonstrated instructive quality and language aptitudes of the human ability in this nation.

More than 300 multinational organizations in the administration, computerized advances, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, light industry and nourishment industry areas work in Costa Rica. They are here as a direct result of the perceived global experience of the nation as a vital base camp for multinational organizations searching for a strategic partner to develop high added value operations.