Despite strong external support, the Honduran educational system is at one and the same time the most expensive and the poorest in terms of quality in Central America. Through its own efforts, the Honduran Government has succeeded in increasing the school enrolment rate to about 90 percent; however, only 69 percent of pupils complete primary school. On the average, a child goes to school for only 5.1 years. The poor quality of the educational system is equally problematic. For the most part it is due to shortcomings in the ministry of education's strategic planning and in teacher training, and to the lack of quality control.

Since 2001, Honduras has been taking part in the Education for All Initiative (EfA). The international donor community is financing this initiative through programme-oriented joint financing in which currently German Financial Cooperation, Spain, Canada and Sweden are participating. German Technical Cooperation assisted the Honduran Ministry of Education with the drafting of the EfA planning. Bilateral donors are supporting the efforts of the Ministry and its decentralised units to see that the drafting of annual planning for EfA is of good quality, is completed on time, and is actually implemented. Further areas for advisory services are improvements in the quality and quantity of data compilation and in monitoring systems. Advisory services focus primarily on efficiency and quality of schooling and the quality of teacher training. The aim is to increase the capacities of the Honduran partner on all levels, so that tasks in the various priority areas can then be completed independently.

With German support, Honduras succeeded in being accepted as a member of the EfA initiative. Teacher training and upgrading were improved. Models to improve schools and teaching methods through school networks were developed and tested.

At the start of 2007, German Development Cooperation became active in supporting the EfA initiative by means of a GTZ/KfW cooperative project. As regards the full integration into the partner's structures of the GTZ PRODES programme to strengthen educational and social policy, the particular strength of Technical Cooperation proved to lie in good access and good relations to the partners and in direct advisory services. This gained the approval of the donor community, which generally acknowledges the role of the advisory team in fostering capacity development as a contribution to the achievement of EfA goals.