Teachers and taxis: corruption in the education sector in Honduras

This paper discusses the corruption problem amongst teachers in Honduras. It also discusses the Honduran concept of ghost or taxi teachers and concludes by looking at what the future will hold.

Honduras invests large sums in education, but powerful teachers’ unions and political appointments hinder reforms in a sector vulnerable to corruption and lacking in civil society monitoring. For current decentralisation plans to impact positively on education services, local auditing skills need to be improved, parents must be given a bigger role, and unions must adhere to codes of conduct.

That paper concludes that:

• a little hope for change has been generated at the Secretary of Education (SoE) level, as some corrective measures have already been taken
• the new round of consultations around the education law is an expression of the intent to create a common agenda through dialogue. If not yet a total success, at least one positive effect has been achieved: an 85% reduction in the number of teacher strikes 
• in terms of human resources capacity, there are new initiatives on professional development being implemented at local and central levels, followed by the introduction 
• however, action needs to be immediate, given Honduras’ well known cycle of priority changes following elections. There seems to be scope for much more – and the current government still has two remaining years in office to change the face of education in the country.