By Wendy Anders

Costa Rica’s National Child Care and Development Network (Red de Cuido Infantil) has added an early childhood education component to 11 of its public daycare centers starting this month, reported the Ministry of Education.

The program is Costa Rica’s first step towards offering broad public early childhood education. The Ministry of Education has allocated a total of 15 teachers in 11 early childhood centers to provide the educational program to 264 children in this initial phase.

The initiative is a collaboration between the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Development and Social Inclusion, the National Children’s Protection Agency (PANI), and the Ministry of Health.

Currently 45,000 children across the country participate in early childhood intervention programs which are offered to low-income families.

Minister of Education Sonia Marta Mora said her administration is committed to providing universal early childhood education which she decribed as follows: ”Investment in early education programs not only benefits children, girls, and their parents or caregivers, but in the long run boosts national development by having better prepared and trained people and a more skilled workforce, which contributes to reducing poverty and reducing social gaps.”

For the Minister of Health Fernando Llorca Castro, early childhood is a very important stage because this is when basic life skills are developed.

And PANI Executive President Ana Teresa León Sáenz said that “The first years of life are a critical stage for physical, mental, emotional and social development. Therefore, providing them with quality education and care appropriate to their development are key to their present and future success.”