Those who graduate from high school in Costa Rica this year will enter the university with weaknesses, as a result of the loss of classes due to the Pandemic and the last national strike that produced 104 missed school days.
And it is that students will obtain high school diplomas without taking the FARO tests, or having the English or French certification, among other shortcomings.
This reality is a challenge for Universities; And that is why some of them already offer leveling courses for this population that has not yet entered college. “Camino a la U” by ULatina, “Freshman Seminar” by Ulacit, “UACA accompanies you”, “Radar” by the UIA and “leveling workshops” by the Universidad Hispanoamericana, are some of the examples of the support offered by the higher education centers. These sites offer lessons in Math, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Spanish, and Social Studies, and are taught by professors from the universities.
In 2018, with the strike against the tax plan, 48% of the school year was lost, after 89 days of strike. After this situation, remedial plans were proposed for 2019; However, another strike in 2019 – this time against FARO tests, dual education and that ended with the departure of Édgar Mora – the number of days lost culminated in 104, in both years.
While this year, due to the Pandemic, the focus has been on priority learning through distance education, so it is estimated that half of the content has been left out. Different private universities have already turned to receive this generation affected by strikes and the Pandemic.
Here we present some bright examples of this commitment:
Daniel Jiménez, Marketing Manager, UIA.
We are creating a series of videos aimed at fifth-year high school students that cover the eight subjects that students must take, where the basic concepts that students require to arrive prepared for the university to take a course, are analyzed and reviewed. Whether it is in the area of engineering, medicine, journalism, tourism, among others. They will be available through the Radar platform at the end of this month of August, to access, the student only needs to enter the platform.
Guillermo Malavassi, Rector, UACA.
What has happened to high school students, due to the strikes of the previous year and in the present due to the Pandemic, is a huge calamity, because they have lost a lot of school time and not all were prepared to continue their studies, in an acceptable way, with distance learning.
The program “UACA accompanies you” has appointed a group of experienced university professors, who during a semester, free of charge for students and paid by the university, will give lessons, as a kind of remedial plan so that students can continue with success in higher education.
Rosa Monge, Rector, Latin University.
We seek to contribute with our work for the country and to our young people since thousands of students have been affected by the current context: last year was marked by constant strikes, and this year the Pandemic forced classes to be transferred to virtual or distance format in all educational centers.
We know that many students do not have the resources and in that sense, we want to support them with the alliance “Camino a la U”, which will allow us to reinforce their knowledge. Our teaching staff will delve into the content learned at school and will help with your concerns and queries.
Marianela Núñez, Associate Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Ulacit.
In our alternative classroom model, the student consumes time and cognitive resources to assimilate the content of the subject and carry out the learning activities that the teacher designs to adjust to their needs (…) in this way, time in the classroom is an authentic space for the leveling of students under the guidance of the same teacher.
The students seeking entrance to technicians and baccalaureate degrees take in Freshman Seminar modality. a course of academic and social leveling of university life; and in the Mathematics area, the study plans have as a leveling course or as part of the Pre-Calculus study plan, facilitating the development of the necessary competencies in that area.
Eugenia Rodríguez, Vice-rector for Student Welfare and University Extension, Castro Carazo University.
We offer a series of actions so that the student experience is the most advantageous and so that each student reaches the well-being and the maximum development of their potential, such as academic support among peers (tutorials), student monitoring to improve academic performance, financial support measures and activities to promote the physical, mental and emotional health of the student body. The teachers give a particular follow-up to each student so that when there is any difficulty during the course, the protocol for attention is immediately activated.
Urbina Frame, Managing Director, Hispanic College.
In times of global uncertainty, we enable training and orientation alternatives for a successful professional future of our young people through higher education. Entering students will have vocational testing and guidance, a series of free virtual courses and workshops that are taught from the first week of August to December and will prepare them for their entrance and university experience.
Each month there will be a different academic offer for young people to enroll according to their interests. In our social networks (Facebook, and Instagram) we will announce the opening and registration of the different courses to be taught.
