It "Pays" To Have Connections in High Places
From an office worker salary to a teacher salary in one day is what he wife of the vice-minister of Education, José Lino Rodríguez, received when she was promoted from an office worker to a professor, a position she never held, in just one day.

Montserrat Vindas saw her salary go from the basic ¢279.000 colones to ¢381.000 colones as her status within the Ministerio de Educación Pública (MEP) with the stroke of a pen. Vindas has refused to comment on the situation and has never seen a day in the classroom, according to the local Telenoticias report.

"It is not normal, however, it can happen", said Alvaro Alpizar, director of personnel at the MEP.

Vice-minister Rodríguez said "I understand that this could be misinterpreted as it is unusual that in a single day there would be such movement in an employees salary, and especially when talking about a vice-minister's wife, however, this is a old practice at the Ministerio de Educación Pública."

However, the president of the Asociación Nacional de Educadores, José Antonio Barquero, assures that a promotion from office worker to teacher, like that of the vice-minister's wife, can only be done by competition. "She has the requirements and logically can compete for the position and can be promoted if and only when there has been a competition or the person was next in line for the promotion", said Barquero.