Sidebar #32 - Costa Rican High Schools: Colegios Técnicos y Liceos Académicos

In the US, there are really two types of high schools: private and public. Anyone in the public school system doesn’t really have a say in where they attend school except for rare circumstances, like when a parent works at an institution outside of their home district. It is a little different in Costa Rica. Students have, at minimum, a couple of different options within the public education system for high school. Elementary school, or escuela, consists of grades first through sixth. For the most part, education in escuelas is fairly standardized. However, as students finish sixth grade, that is when students and their families must make a decision. 

The first option students have at their disposal is to enroll in a liceo académico. A liceo is pretty similar to the traditional high school experience in the United States. Students take basic subjects like Spanish, Math, Science, Social Sciences, Foreign Languages, etc. This reflects much more of a generalized, liberal arts-style education and prepares students for further studies in college, if they so choose. Students attend their liceo from 7th through 11th grade.

The other primary avenue for students to continue their education after 6th grade is at a colegio técnico profesional, or a CTP. At these institutions, the curriculum is much more vocational and is designed to prepare students for a specific type of career. Whereas liceo students spend 5 years in high school, CTP students complete an extra year. The first 3 of 6 years spent at the CTP are used to take a wide variety of classes as well as “talleres exploratorios” in order to land on a technical specialty, which students must choose by the start of 10th grade. I teach at a CTP, and almost all of my fellow volunteers in the Youth Development program do as well. My CTP offers several technical specialties, (over a dozen I believe) ranging from tourism to accounting to telecommunications and more. Some of my students are interested in continuing on with college upon graduation; however, most will use their technical specialities to begin their career.

Deciding between a Liceo and a CTP is a pretty big decision for students and their families to make after sixth grade - I don’t envy it. It really depends on the students’ goals and desires and is affected greatly by a family’s socioeconomic situation too. I enjoyed my broad education and experience at a liberal arts education, so I probably would’ve gone the Liceo route. But, given that many of Costa Rica’s jobs are more “blue collar” and technical, a CTP education can give students a great career path and more surefire job prospects directly out of high school. In many ways, American high schools lack this critical vocational training that can be so valuable for students. Because of that, I see the CTP option as a major advantage in the Costa Rican public education system compared to what we have in the United States.