Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Education suspended and annulled the National Standardized Foreign Language Exam in English after exam material reportedly circulated among students before the testing process had finished.
The measure affects final-year students in academic high schools who were scheduled to take the English exam on Wednesday, June 17. The decision does not apply to every national exam, nor to all foreign-language tests. It applies specifically to the English section of the Prueba Nacional Estandarizada de Lenguas Extranjeras.
The Ministry of Education acted after a school reported that a PDF containing the applied exam was circulating in student chats. By the time the alert reached education authorities Wednesday afternoon, some daytime students had already taken the test, while night-school students had not yet completed their scheduled session.
As a result, the ministry invalidated the exams already taken during the daytime schedule and suspended the exam for night schools. The test will be rescheduled for September under the dates set in the school calendar.
Education Minister Leonardo Sánchez ordered the ministry’s academic vice minister and the Directorate of Quality Management and Evaluation to begin administrative actions and investigate how the material was leaked. The ministry also said it would file a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The case creates a major disruption for students in their final year of high school, since the foreign-language exam is part of Costa Rica’s national evaluation system. The test is used to measure students’ command of a second language based on international proficiency bands, including A1, A2, B1 and B2.
The English exam evaluates listening and reading skills. For 2026, MEP guidance listed the test as a maximum 180-minute evaluation, beginning with the listening section and followed by the reading section. The ministry said it will strengthen control measures for the national standardized exams to protect the security of the process and the integrity of the results.
The suspension comes as Costa Rica continues to place heavy emphasis on English-language learning as part of its education and workforce strategy. For students, parents and schools, the immediate concern is schedule related as those affected will now have to wait until September to retake the exam under new security conditions.
No final conclusions have been announced about who leaked the material or how the document began circulating. Officials are now working to determine how the material was leaked and who may be involved.
