The Deplorable State Of Education In Honduras

Education in Honduras has always been in a deplorable state.  And, it is getting worse. 

Each year thousands more children are finding a way to attend school.  That should be good news.  But it really isn't.  There are no more classrooms being added, no more textbooks being purchased and no  more teachers being hired.  We have seen that in Santa Ana.  Some of our Casa kids are in classrooms with 50 or more students.  How can one teacher possibly teach that many students?  Maybe, they are not.

There are over 3000 schools where there is only one teacher.  The State says a teacher can easily teach six grades as long as there are not more than 24 total students.  In every instance of a school with only one teacher, there are 48 or more students in the school.  I don't see how a teacher teaches 48 in the same grade, much less 48 students spanning six grades.

Teachers are striking at least one day a week because they are not being paid.  I can't say that I would want to keep working if I wasn't being paid, but the children suffer because of this.

There are over 19,000 elementary schools in Honduras.  More than 90% of those need major structural repairs that would cost over 7 million dollars.  Dollars, not limpiras.  When a country can't pay its teachers, how would they ever pay 7 million dollars for repairs.

The "State of Education in Honduras" reveals cannot possibly meet the Millennium Development Goals in the area of education.  One of these goals is by 2015 to reach an enrollment rate of 95% of all children in the primary grades.  No one thinks it will happen.  And, if it did, could the children be adequately educated in overcrowded, dilapidated classrooms, with not enough textbooks and supplies? 

Another goal is to have all children between ages 15 and 24 to have a sixth grade literacy.  This is not expected to happen either.  What standard is being used to measure sixth grade literacy, I am not sure.  Our kids fourth grade teacher was teaching Roman numerals wrong and Karen had to go teach the teacher.  And having to write the numbers from 1 to 30,000 in the course of the school year is not productive learning.  I could give several examples of inadequate, unproductive learning that I see being required of our kids every day.

Honduras is lagging far behind in the area of education even among other countries in Latin America.  What kind of future is there for Honduras as another generation is barely able to read and write?

Terri