Honduras Education Profile 2012

Education is free and compulsory for children 7 to 15 years of age, but school attendance is low. Nearly half the adult population is unable to read or write. The National University is located at Tegucigalpa, with branches at San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba.

The absence of a comprehensive educational infrastructure, human capital development, and a research and technology policy all constitute gaps in Honduras’ development. As long as these gaps remain, the country will have only limited options for expanding its portion of the value-added chain. Despite comparatively high education expenditure in quantitative terms (mainly due to relatively high teacher salaries), the output of the education system has not improved. Public teacher strikes, resulting in massive reduction in the amount of teaching performed, were common during the period under review. The most important public university of the country (UNAH, Universidad Nacional Autónoma) is in permanent crisis. The private UNITEC University has taken the lead in education and research in Honduras, above all in natural sciences, business studies and engineering.