Through constant attention to education, Costa Rica has achieved the highest literacy rate in Central America. Its literacy rate rivals that of many larger and more industrialized nations. Since the 1970’s Costa Rica has consistently invested twenty-eight percent of the national budget in education-something which would not have been possible while maintaining armed forces.

The educational system is divided into three major sections. Elementary schooling is free and obligatory. Seventy percent of high schools are public, while accredited private institutions provide the other thirty percent. University education began last century, but it wasn’t until 1940 that the University of Costa Rica, the country’s largest public university, was founded. Thirty years later, several more public universities had been created, including a correspondence school. The first of numerous private universities was established in 1977.