Volunteer Teaching in Costa Rica

Costa Rica occupies the 4th position of education accessibility in the world; moreover, the government assigns over a 6% of the annual national budget to education and by law, preschoolar, primary and secondary are mandatory and free for all children nationwide. Nevertheless, the education has not been equal to all students according to their location and population.

Some of the school are crowded with more than 30 students at a classroom in the urban area, and in the rural area, all the students do not received the same amount of hours of study and less subject than in urban areas. A lot of the remote areas, they only have one teacher for all subjects and grades, and at some high schools, some subjects are taught through the television due to the lack of teachers. The teachers struggle to find a balance between providing an education with quality and attending the need of all the students with individual needs.

There is also a demand on the technical education to adults and elders in order to have a better living condition or to feel useful in the society and the government; through the Ministry of Education, does not have all the resources to cover this area and delegates this duty to other public institutions like public libraries.

Teaching Volunteers provide support to Costa Rican teachers in all different areas of the education for children and adults, from pre-elementary education help, though elementary and secondary level in different subjects like English, French, Mathematics, Physical Education and other, to adult education in areas such as computer and conversational English.

Also, by the Teaching Volunteer program, volunteers can help other institutions that provide extracurricular support to children at orphanages or clinics with tutorials or classes when children are going through any medical condition.