COSTA RICA NEWS – At the end of the day today (Friday), some 940.000 students will start their mid-year or summer vacation break. Officially the vacation period is from June 28 to July 13, for a total of 10 school days.
But counting the three weekends it is actually 16 days, because the Ministry of Education (MEP in Spanish) has prohibited teachers from handing out homework, assignments or any studying for tests during the break.
Not even the 21 school days in which the students and teachers were not in the classroom due to the teacher’s strike, is a valid enough excuse to use the break to catch up.
“The holidays are a right of every student, as such they should not have any schoolwork assigned to them. It is not allowed,”, said Marilyn Jiménez, comptroller of Student Rights at the MEP.
Jiménez added that the prohibition included the extra class projects that counts for about 10% of overall grading.
The comptroller added that if a teacher fails to heed to the restriction by assigning any type of school work, the student may file a complaint with the MEP.
