CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 3: CURRENT SITUATION OF GENDER EQUALITY IN
3.1 C URRENT SITUATION OF G ENDER E QUALITY ON E DUCATION
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CHAPTER 3: CURRENT SITUATION OF GENDER EQUALITY IN HONDURAS
3.1 Current situation of Gender Equality on Education Education for women and girls is an intrinsic right and a critical pedal for achieving gender equality. Several organizations like UNICEF in official documents such as the Investment Case for Education and Equity (UNICEF, 2015), The World Bank on Girls' Education in the 21st Century and Gender Equality, Empowerment, and Economic Growth (Tembon, and Fort, 2008), and the IMF’s global report called Make it right, Ending the Crisis in Girls Education (IMF, 2011), to mention some, have stated the importance of equal education for boys and girls under the belief that girls with access to education help break the poverty cycle. When girls grow to become educated women they are less likely to die during childbirth, marry against their will and have more access to health care and employment opportunities. Educated women invest directly in
nutrition, health, and education for their children. It is through education that women gain their equitable place in society as well as their opportunities to contribute and improve it.
(World Bank, 2014)
Equal access to education for all children promotes basic human rights, creating effects on entire communities and significant influence in future generations. Education, when studying gender equality, is fundamental to its understanding and it’s effective
attainment.
Progress has been made worldwide where most low-income countries have made substantial growth in achieving gender parity in primary school enrollments.
Inopportunely, in the last thirty years, Central American countries have not reached substantial achievements made by other Latin-American countries. The region has been severely impacted by political instability, cultural peculiarities, and widespread poverty, leaving it with a great disadvantage in the ability to progress towards more access and quality education for both boys and girls. (Navin, 2004)
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primary, primary, middle, secondary, and tertiary. Public education in Honduras is free for children ages 6 to 15 but it is only mandatory for children to attend at the primary level that ranges from ages 6-12. In order to better comprehend the status of education for women in Honduras we will examine the variables of both primary and secondary enrollment.
In the country, both male and female primary and secondary enrolments are significantly high. According to the World’s Bank Data Base, Honduras has 100 in The Ratio of female to male primary enrollment, which is the percentage of girls to boys enrolled at primary level in public and private schools. For every 100 boys there are 100 girls enrolled in primary education in the last three years of available information (World Bank Group, 2013). The ratio of female to male primary enrollment in Honduras is the highest in all Central American countries since the year of the coup d’etat in 2009, until most recent available data, 2012, with only Nicaragua with no available information for adequate comparison.
TABLE 3.1: Ratio of female to male primary enrollment (%) in Central America
ND: No Available Data
*Source: Table extracted from the latest update of indicators of the World Bank Group 2013. (World Bank Open Data, 2013) Web Link: (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ENR.PRIM.FM.ZS)
Country 2009 2010 2011 2012
Panama 97 96 97 97
Costa Rica
ND 99 99 99
Belize 97 97 97 97
Guatemala 96 96 97
ND
El Salvador 97 96 96 96
Nicaragua ND 98 ND ND
Honduras 100 100 100 100
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In terms of the ratio of female to male secondary enrollment, which represents the percentage of girls to boys enrolled at secondary level in public and private schools, Honduras also showcases the highest numbers within the Central American region since 2009 until the most available information in 2012.
According to the World’s Bank Data Base, Honduras most recent ratio of female to male primary enrollment is 122, which is the percentage of girls to boys enrolled at secondary level in public and private schools. For every 100 boys there are 122 girls enrolled in secondary education in the last two years of available information.
TABLE 3.2: Ratio of female to male secondary enrollment (%) in Central America.
ND: No Available Data
Source: Table extracted from the latest update of indicators of the World Bank Group 2013. (World Bank Open Data, 2013) Web Link: (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ENR.SECO.FM.ZS)
In Honduras, significant gains in expanding educational access where made all during the 1990s, with impressive results in the availability of primary education. The country projects an enhanced access to both primary and secondary levels of education for girls and boys. Clearly, there exists remarkable improvement in access to education and the conflicts concerning gender disparity shift to other variables such as quality and efficiency issues. (Bedi and Marshall, 2002)
Country 2009 2010 2011 2012
Panama 108 107 108 105
Costa Rica 106 106 105 105
Belize 108 109 108 105
Guatemala 93 92 91 ND
El Salvador 102 101 100 100
Nicaragua ND 110 ND ND
Honduras ND 123 122 122
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The Honduran government has comprehended that if gender inequality persists
impediment for development is fostered, affirming that women and men’s participation in educational programs contributes directly to the society as a whole. Consequently, The Ministry of Education has promoted equal opportunities and created measures for the attainment of the strategic education objectives set out in the Platform for Action, including The Equal Opportunities for Women Act that was approved in 2000, and the National Policy for Women in 2002. (Bautista, 2004) This has definitely had a positive effect in terms of access to both primary and secondary enrollment and it has allowed an efficient relationship between public and private institutions supporting the rights of women in education.
Though great advancement in enrolment has been made, previous studies suggest that gender disparity is projected in other dimensions that include content and specifically academic achievement, which is low for women, due to repetition and school desertion rates. (Bedi and Marshall, 2002). In rural areas and the most vulnerable regions in the country, children may access free education, but the same teacher is often in charge of grades 1 to 6th, leaving all children, ages 6-12, sharing a classroom and their time when getting actual education. Factors besides the access to enroll are outcomes that appear to create unequal patterns of school attendance in the country.
While enrollment continues upright, other studies indicate that education in Honduras remains inadequate and unequal due to the widespread poverty. The results are
anticipated in inefficient management and low coverage for the rural poor. These factors can have a significant impact on the prevalence of gender disparity. Other controversies dealing with the teaching profession, where wages schemes are high depending on political connections and performance is yet to be considered, also increase gender inequality, translating into incomplete opportunities for girls (Navin, 2004)
Education can trigger the empowerment process by expanding women’s knowledge and their understanding but certain preconceived notions such as imposed gender knowledge, shaped by cultural idiosyncrasies can severely damage the process.
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Attendance and quality appear to foster the empowerment process and are not
traditionally present in Latin and Central American schools. In order to achieve actual women’s empowerment in education, programs should re-examine such quality and their content in order to assure its substance to be equal, rather than assuming that providing the existing education will foster the desired female empowerment. (Graham, 2008)
Important gender theorists recognize that schools are strategic tools to foster gender equal relations; the educational system allows schools to be open for debates and the first places where new experiences regarding opposite genders are most likely to occur.
(Connell, 1989) The power underlined in the school’s influence on the children to grow up with equal notions for both genders fosters a great importance in the content and quality of the educational material.
Investigations on gender and education in high income countries suggests that schools are proper sites to establish suitable gender concepts but if social and cultural norms foster behaviors that further enhance traditional roles for women and men, schools can actually become the main impediment when reproducing gender equality. Much has to be made regarding curriculum, quality and content, which include teacher trainings and
professional development around gender issues. (Gilbert and Gilbert 1998)
Ensuring equal access to education for all children and adolescents is an imperative structural change, but as is the case of Honduras, a country that has facilitated educational access in a successful matter over the years, a structural change is not enough to eradicate the unequal situation that characterizes the region.
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