Educational Reform in Honduras-The Roots of Challenges and the Way Forward
“Education is the foundation on which Liberty rests and the aggrandizement of peoples. We have failed to understand or process the wise foresight of the hero Cecilio del Valle: “Education is the first need of the country,” HRN, La Voz de Honduras.
More than 16,000 public educational centers in Honduras lack adequate infrastructure. Some 5,700 centers lack drinking water, and 44% of schools do not have electricity. One in 4 public education centers lacks desks. These findings were reported by HRN, La Voz de Honduras in last week’s Reportaje de la Semana.
HRN conducted an in-depth report on the state of Education in Honduras. The radio consulted with a variety of experts who shared their insights on the roots of the problems and proposed solutions based on their experiences.
Solutions will require coordination and congressional buena voluntad. This September, the Honduran Congress will meet to map out the 2023 national budget, including Education.
Current State of Schools
Among those interviewed, HRN spoke with Deputy Edgardo Casaña who provided an update on the conditions of the schools:
“Our educational centers, about 75-78%, are destroyed. The investment and the work that needs to be done is really brutal. If we moved forward in trying to rebuild all these educational centers, we are talking about 20,000 educational centers, and we did one every day, we would not be able to complete the reconstruction project in 20 years. This is really sad. The educational system has been subjected to years of abandonment.”
Currently, there are around 800 educational centers that are being repaired, explains Casaña. The goal between Fondo Hondureño de Inversión Social (FHIS) and the Secretary of Education is to rebuild about 1,500-1,600 schools this year, “which is not a matter of resources, the resources are there. It is a matter of operational capacity. It is a matter of legal processes. It will require making reparations through tech projects coordinated through the municipalities, something that needs to advance as quickly as possible.”
Deputy Casaña explains that the reparation projects would be executed by the community, a strategy that would begin next year. The nationwide effort would require mayors working alongside their communities, working simultaneously to rebuild the thousands of centers that need to be repaired.
“There are thousands of educational centers that do not have water. There are hundreds of hundreds of educational centers that do not have electricity. This needs to be resolved. In the 21st century, how is it possible that we have educational centers without electricity, without water, without sanitation? It is imperative to solve this,” urged Casaña who listed Santa Barbara, Cortez, Francisco Morazan and Olancho as departments that ought to be prioritized.
Student Drop Out Rates in Honduras
Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán (UPNFM), A Study
The Director of Investigation, Roosevelt Hernández, detailed devastating findings identified by a study carried out by UPNFM between 2016 and 2021.
“About 60% of the students in various municipalities in the west of the country have left the classroom. Several of the western municipalities have suffered a great drop in the number of enrolled students. Some municipalities have lost between 2016 and 2021, about 60% of the students, from “pre basica hasta media.” This is quite critical. We investigated why. There are some individual factors. There are bad grades; the lack of connectivity during the pandemic has been a serious factor, many children lost interest; and then there is the little accompaniment by the parents, disconnection from children’s homework, among others.”
Hernández detailed that in Olancho there are 3 municipalities with high percentage of enrollment drops. “Children and young people have abandoned the educational system.” The municipalities in the West of the country lead in significant dropout rates, said Hernandez.
Infrastructural Collapse
More than 16,000 public educational centers are collapsed at the infrastructure level, states HRN. This is aside from the lack of electricity, the lack of desks, the lack of drinking water, and the need for basic conditions to be in place so teaching can take place.
The Director of the Dirección General de Construcciones Escolares of the Secretaría de Educación, Juan Carlos Coello, confirmed the situation while assuring that a good number of educational centers are being repaired.
“There is awareness in the current administration and availability of human and economic resources to solve this urgent need for children and young students in Honduras…. we are in the process of intervening with different cooperators,” said Coello.
The Pandemic’s Effect
Engineer Marlon Escoto, the former Secretary of Education in Honduras explained the negative impact of the pandemic on the educational system:
“We already had problems in education before the pandemic and during the pandemic the educational system was abandoned. The systems used to matriculate students and collect results stopped. Maintenance and repairs of educational centers also stopped. And any infrastructure without maintenance for 2 years tends to deteriorate. In short, we had 2 years in which educational centers were abandoned,” said Escoto.
What Funds will be Used to Repair Schools?
“What remains to be seen is how the budget will be affected for next year,” said Escoto. In September, the 2023 budget will be discussed. There are also funds from loans, added Escoto, “and the Secretary of Education’s funds that were already approved for investment in education and among other things, in infrastructure, and those were on hold. It is important that these funds can flow. There are also donation funds.”
Germany Closes Cycle of Cooperation
Escoto explained that “unfortunately, Germany closed its cycle of cooperation in the country, which was very important. With them, the first educational infrastructure plan was started and built, which allowed us to learn where the educational centers are located, in what conditions and helped us store supporting documentation, like how much is required for reconstruction.” Escoto stated that these tools ensure the flow of inter-institutional processes and facilitate local governments’s contributions.
The Role of Municipalities in Local Education
Escoto added that up to 11% of municipal transfers are related to educational costs and there are many municipalities that invest in educational infrastructure at the local level.
A large part of “Empresarios por la Educación Honduras,” an entity that started a few years ago made up of private companies that invest in education through corporate social responsibility, “donate considerable funds,” according to Escoto. In addition to those resources, there are donated funds, borrowed funds, and national funds, said Escoto. “All these sources can contribute to an equation of construction that can be applied to educational infrastructure,” he said.
It is important that local governments and the parents be involved in the acquisition of materials and all processes at the local level, in a village, in a hamlet, in an urban area, he affirmed. “An identity is generated at the local level,” when local government and the community work together.
In September, it will be necessary to review how many state resources from the 2023 budget, will be allocated to educational infrastructure, said Escoto. “A plan for sustainability and maintenance over time will also be needed,” he warned.
Challenges in Prioritizing School Maintenance
Dr Marlon Escoto explained why maintenance of educational centers has not been a priority, despite great need for repairs.
“Normally it is not prioritized,” he said. “And although the discussion of these budgets is raised, the first point of discussion is the payment of teacher salaries. School maintenance is not prioritized. The focus is on the assignment of wages and teachers’ payroll.
Non-Legalized Territories
“When we worked on the Educational Infrastructure Master Plan with financing from German cooperation and the World Bank, 90% of the school buildings did not have supporting documentation. The donors had built the schools, they told us, but the lands and schools were not legally registered,” said Escoto.
“How many educational centers did not have legal documentation? 95% of them. That number has since changed,” he continued. Donors and investors would not complete repairs without proper legal documentation, “Since the schools did not have a legal document that said the schools belonged to the state, they could not invest,” he explained.
The Master Plan and Priorities are in Place
The construction of schools in non-legalized territories indicates that most of the educational centers have been built thanks to local support, donors, parents, people who donated land.
“Now we have a master plan, we know where they are, in what conditions, how many resources are required, what is the most important thing: Energy, water, access. All these elements will allow us to make faster decisions. If Congress decides in September to incorporate one billion lempiras, the Secretary of Education can automatically say in which centers it is necessary to invest because they have been prioritized,” asserted Escoto.
Repairing Structures or Tackling Quality?
HRN also spoke with vice-rector of the Francisco Morazan University, Dr. Dario Cruz. To explain the challenges currently facing the Education sector in the country, the vice-rector pointed to complex considerations beyond the classroom, like the support of the parents, the schooling of the parents, access to recreational spaces, energy access, connectivity issues, drinking water. “There are many reasons that influence education in addition to educational centers,” said Dr. Cruz. There is also the topic of access to private tutorials. “Educational quality is associated with multidimensional factors,” he continued.
Why Legalizing All Schools is Important
According to Dr. Dario Cruz, approximately 14,000 educational centers do not have the proper documentation. The educational centers are public schools but are not documented in the name of the state of Honduras. Before working on improvements, potential partners ask for the deed indicating that the schools belong to the state.
“And if we don’t even have that, it means that we have to start at the beginning. We need to start documenting, registering and legalizing our schools. What we have had so far is a de facto occupation. These schools are not legalized,” said Dr. Cruz.
Education Proposals for the New Administration
“At the beginning of the term, we presented the President with a plan that includes various areas. We delivered it to the Secretary of Education, Professor Daniel Sponda. We presented a tutoring and accompaniment plan for weekends for students who have a learning deficit as a result of the pandemic, that is, those who are in 3rd grade and have not achieved the reading competence, for example, the numerical competence. Our plan is available to teachers and authorities.”
The problem is not lack of a plan. “All these plans have to do with resources, and resources in this country are limited,”explained Dr. Cruz. Given the lack of funds, “we cover the basic needs. It’s not that we don’t want to. The priority is covered and the acquired commitments that are the salaries are covered, and then what is left for investment, education and training or infrastructure of educational centers is scarce,” details Dr. Cruz. The demand is great. I am from Olancho and we have a saying, “there are many devils and little holy water.” Too much demand and too little we can solve,” he continued.
How to Motivate Students to Return to the Classroom
Dr. Dario Cruz suggested reestablishing a partnership with the parents. “My mother couldn’t read or write, but she knew all her children had to be in school,” he recalled. The first step is reminding the parents that it is important that young people go to educational centers. “We come from humble families and lack of resources, and only education will allowed us to move up, to professionalize ourselves and continue working and contributing,” he reflected.
For Dr. Cruz the starting point is the parent and the second is retention. “I was captivated by going to school because every day there was something new to discover. The teachers made me interested in continuing to learn. This was learning not by repeating but by knowing, by uncovering. We have to captivate students, encourage deduction as a teaching method so that students can have an interest in education. We have to teach them lessons that will be useful for life,” said Dr. Cruz.
Solutions
Facing the challenging statistics that 60% of the children in the western part of the country have abandoned the classrooms, Former Secretary of Education, Dr. Marlon Escoto shared some recommendations for the new administration:
“There are many things that can be done along the way with the understanding that the Secretary of Education is not the only one responsible for the educational system. In Honduras, there is a National Council of Education that is in force.
Honduras has a formal and legal structure for how the educational systems of the country are formed. Then there is the executive, the departments of the interior and the links between education, finances, budget commissions of the national congress, cooperation structures, foreign ministry relations and all areas of cooperation, those who approve the external financing, in the end, there is the institutional framework, national funds and finance allocations,” he explained.
Betting on Inter-Institutionality
“Now, we have to rebuild schools. For that, local inter-institutionality is needed as well as foundations, and NGOs. A mobilization, a resource transfer mechanism is needed. We have to recover trust with directors of educational centers and fathers and mothers of families; the association of fathers and mothers of families has disappeared at the national level,” said Escoto.
In terms of the legalizing land, Escoto has a suggestion: “Congress can decree, as a matter of public interest, an order to obtain public deeds for all the lands where public schools are. Immediately after, they can transfer mixed resources to local governments and decentralize the reconstruction of educational centers and materials.
Desks Can be Built Locally
“400,000 desks are needed. Instead of building all of them at the central level, authorities can transfer the money and construction plans to local workshops so they can build those. It costs 500 lempiras to make a desk and it can be done locally, which would speed up the process,” said Escoto.
The changes needed require agility, decentralization and participation by local governments to directly accompany the process, recommended Escoto.
“Education must be placed as a national priority,” he continues. The schools are more than centers to learn. “The school is a space of social protection in Honduras,” states Escoto. “Schools Serve parents as a safe space that allows parents to carry on with their activities. 1 out of 3 students in public schools in Honduras belongs to a family in extreme poverty. They live with 100 lempiras a day and every day they have to go out for that resource to subsist. So if they can leave the children in a public school, the school becomes another place where children can have another meal. A school snack, a lunch. This is a second reason for going to an educational center and the third is to learn to live together, to read and write. There were talks of giving students a backpack with all the supplies, and shoes, these would be additional incentives. We are not yet in a position to talk about educational quality. These steps can be done now but they will require a lot of will.”
Soledad Quartucci | Latina Republic
Dr. Soledad Quartucci is the founder and CEO of Latina Republic, a 501(C)3 California-based nonprofit organization. Latina Republic is a reporting, research, advocacy and charitable organization advancing human rights in the Americas. We fill the void in coverage of urgent social, political, human rights, economic and gender inequalities affecting the Americas. Through our allies in Latin America, we highlight contributions, heritage, history, leadership and innovation. Latina Republic reports on stories that integrate local strategies to the betterment of the region. We make space for and empower unheard voices and celebrate the rich histories of Latin America.
