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Honduras is a Central American nation that shares borders with Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. It has coasts on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. More than three-fourths of the 29,236-square mile country is mountainous. In 1997, its population was over 6 million. Five major cities include Tegucigalpa (the capital), San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, Puerto Lempira, and Santa Rosa de Copán…
The 1982 Honduran constitution stipulates laws and regulations related to education in articles 151 to 171. Primary education is free and obligatory. Honduran nationals must teach the constitution, history, and geography of Honduras in public schools. Public education is nondenominational, and parents can choose whether to send their children to public or private schools. The state charges schools…
Schools in Honduras fall in four categories: preprimary, primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary. The Secretary of Public Education is the chief administrator. The Ministry of Education supervises the writing and publication of textbooks and is in charge of distributing them throughout the country. The curriculum is the same for the whole country and, following the spirit of the country�…
At age four, children may attend either a public or a private school, and they do so for a period of three years (ages four to six). Preprimary education is divided into three stages: prekindergarten, kindergarten, and preparatory. The Honduran constitution stipulates that preprimary education must be both free and compulsory. In fact, however, very few children (less than 13 percent in the early …
There are two stages in secondary education: lower and upper. To be accepted in the lower level (equivalent to the American middle school or junior high) students must have completed six years of primary education. In the lower level there are two tracks, called common cycles: the common cycle of general culture and the prevocational common cycle. Both tracks last two years and enroll students fro…
The National Autonomous University of Honduras, founded in 1847, is the premier institution of higher learning. It became autonomous in 1847, and in the 1990s, more than 30,000 students were enrolled. In addition to the main campus in Tegucigalpa, it has branches in San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba. Other universities include JoséCecilio del Valle University (founded in 1977), Central American T…
The Ministry of Education controls all facets of primary and secondary education, although the universities enjoy autonomy. This centralization contributes to the ineffectiveness of the educational system. Too much power is concentrated in Tegucigalpa, and few initiatives are left to provincial (departmental) school officials. The government enacts educational legislation that is handed down to th…
As in most Central American countries, adult education programs focus on three areas: literacy programs, agrarian education and community development programs, and vocational courses. The illiteracy rate in Honduras at the end of the twentieth century stood at about 73 percent. In the rural areas, more than 80 percent of the population was illiterate. Literacy classes are offered by government age…
Primary school teachers must attend three years of the upper secondary cycle in the teacher training schools (escuelas normales).
The Honduran education system faces several challenges in the twenty-first century. For much of the twentieth century, Honduran students were required to memorize useless or impractical data at the expense of sharpening their reasoning powers and critical thinking skills. To address this issue, educators must update the curriculum and conduct better assessment of student performance. Teacher train…
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