New Education Program Launches in Honduras

EDC will join the U.S. Agency for International Development and other partners at a launch event for a new five-year $69 million investment to support education in Honduras. The event, which will be held April 27 in Gracias, Lempira, will include Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, the Minister of Education Marcial Solís, Acting U.S. Ambassador Heide B. Fulton, and other distinguished guests.

This new USAID investment is intended to foster a culture of reading in Honduras while transforming the country’s classrooms and communities. The investment includes two projects, USAID De Lectores a Líderes (USAID Honduras Reading Activity) and Materiales de Lectura de Calidad (Quality Reading Materials). Through USAID De Lectores a Líderes, EDC will support the Honduran government in its efforts to improve reading instruction and outcomes for 700,000 students in grades 1–6 in more than 2,500 schools nationwide. The project will enhance reading skills while addressing the critical issues of poverty and violence facing Honduras.

EDC will work with its partners to support the Ministry of Education in efforts to update the basic national curriculum in reading and writing, strengthen the supply chain of teaching and learning materials, and train more than 15,000 teachers in evidence-based teaching techniques. The project will also strengthen or establish 1,000 school libraries.

“We know that classroom achievement is directly connected to a country’s economic growth and when we improve early grade reading, we will increase success in later grades and enhance future economic opportunities,” said EDC’s Mónica Sahonero, senior reading specialist for the project. “Working with the Ministry of Education and our community and institution partners, we have an opportunity to alter the education system in Honduras.”

EDC has a long history of successful collaboration in Honduras. Most recently, tens of thousands of young people received job skills training through the USAID-funded Proyecto METAS, implemented by EDC over six years. All of these programs are part of the USAID strategy to improve education and teacher training, prevent and address violence in schools, and improve job skills and access to employment for young people throughout the country.