If you look at the currency in many countries you will often find each bill has a President or some king or queen of that country that passed certain bills to make a difference in the history of the country. Well, in Costa Rica you will find a President on some of the currency, but on the majority of the bills it is not a president you find but it is teachers. Since 1948 Costa Rica has been trying to develop its education system to be on par with the developed world. The literacy rate is on par with many and the Universities are some of the best in the region. For the investment in the past on education you now see large companies like Intel, IBM, HP, and many more setting up in Costa Rica and getting access to the well educated bi-lingual, tech-savvy youth of Costa Rica.
The education system has been really rocking in Costa Rica for the last 60 years but it could use a face-lift. With a country that has succeeded in education which has allowed them to keep the population down an this means that they need less schools (compared to the African countries who double their population) which means they should be improving education. In recent years some of the strikes you have seen have been from teachers and its not to say that Costa Rica's education has fallen behind but it has not kept pace with expectations of many of the teachers. The coming years will be a good indicator of the decisions Costa Rica will be making on education.