Project description

Title: Promotion of the quality of basic education in the context of the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Honduras
Lead executing agency: Secretariat of Education
Overall term: 2004 to 2011

Context

The quality and efficiency of basic education in Honduras are still inadequate. In recent years there has been a rise in the number of children starting school, as well as a decline in the number who drop out, and the intake of girls is now just as high as it is for boys. However, at both central and local levels of the education sector, the capacity of institutions to plan, implement and evaluate activities is very weak. As a result, funds provided by the donor community to help the country meet its targets under the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI – a global partnership launched by the G8 and the World Bank in 2002) are not being disbursed as planned.

This jeopardises the implementation of education reforms in Honduras. The quality of teaching is poor and there is a high level of absenteeism among teachers. The teacher training system (basic and in-service training) is undergoing major changes and cannot currently meet the demand for teachers. High staff turnover and clientelism are making the situation worse.

Objective

Basic education in Honduras has been comprehensively improved.

Approach

The programme for promoting the quality of basic education in the context of EFA-FTI (Programa de Apoyo a la Calidad de la Educación Básica) is being carried out in cooperation with KfW Entwicklungsbank, which, together with other donors, is helping to fund the implementation of the EFA-FTI plan.

The current basic education policy in Honduras is based on the five components of the 2002 EFA-FTI plan:

1. Efficient primary school education
2. Capable and efficient teachers
3. Preschool education
4. Bilingual education
5. Networks among rural schools

The programme builds the institutional capacities required to implement these components. It provides direct support for components 2 and 5. The programme itself consists of four components:

• Institutional support: Organisational development measures are used to improve the capacity of the Ministry of Education for results-oriented planning and management.
• Teacher training: The programme is helping to establish a coherent teacher training system that imparts and maintains the educational standards agreed in the new curriculum.
• School management: The local school administrations are supported in their supervisory and administrative roles in order to improve school management.
• Better governance of the education sector: The programme is helping to establish conditions that will encourage medium to long-term improvements in governance, with greater transparency and less scope for corruption.

Results achieved so far

The government has revised and improved its new education plan (Plan Nacional de Educación 2010–2014). This now incorporates the Education-for-All Plan, which previously existed in tandem to the national plan. Education authorities in the six departments covered by the programme have learned how to use results-oriented planning methods and are now shaping their strategies to reflect the new education plan. Using these methods, they are able to spend their budgets in a well-targeted manner that brings results.

The teacher training college has developed a proposal for incorporating cross-cutting issues, such as gender, HIV/AIDS, the environment and intercultural relations into teacher training courses. This proposal is currently being appraised by the decision making bodies at the college.

Since 2009, the managers of preschool, primary and more advanced schools have been using an instrument known as the Central Education Project (Proyecto Educativo de Centro – PEC). In this, teachers and parents are encouraged to participate more actively in efforts to improve the standard of education in their schools. As part of a strategy for the countrywide expansion and development of PEC, all the actors involved at departmental and district levels undergo training in which they learn how to facilitate and coordinate the design of development plans for the schools.

In a participatory process, the department for modernisation (Unidad de Modernización) at the Ministry of Education has developed a handbook with back-up material on establishing and managing rural school networks. Such networks are intended to raise the quality of the education services still further. The handbook will be used by directors, teachers and parents involved in the school networks.

In a pilot project, school directors and members of parent associations from 23 selected school networks received training in financial and project management. They are now qualified to carry out small projects successfully within their networks, thereby improving teaching conditions in the schools.

The department for transparency (Unidad de Transparencia) at the Ministry of Education, and a number of civil society organisations are working to achieve greater transparency in the education sector. In one local authority area, lists of teachers in all primary schools have been published for the first time, which means the local communities can now monitor the assignment of teachers.