Current trends in education

Current trends in education. Recognizing the existence of the shortcomings which have heretofore inhibited the development of the educational system, the Government of Honduras has embarked on the road to improvement of the existing situation.

The National Commission for Educational Reform has elaborated a program of changes which are being gradually introduced into the educational system.

Development of education in rural areas has high priority.

The program is designed to adapt the educational structure and content to the development process and the agrarian reform. Greet importance is placed on “nuclearization” which will enable incomplete primary schools which do not yet offer six grades to be gradually completed. It is also hoped that those schools, called “nucleos” will integrate formal and non-formal education activities and thus become community development centers.

The Ministry of Education has been implementing a project intended to create a national service of supervision and orientation of primary education which helps to improve the performance of primary school teachers and the quality of education at this level. Also there has been a significant reorientation of in-service training programs for primary school teachers. Greater emphasis is now placed on natural science and mathematics, hygiene, agriculture, artisan activities, and home economics.

The Ministry has also initiated the reorganization of secondary education to conform with the new structure of the whole system. The basic idea of this reorganization is to make the secondary education system more flexible, internally dynamic and functionally oriented, and to help students integrate themselves easily and productively into the economy. Also, the reorganization of secondary education is intended to enable students to re-enter school in any branch and on any level.

Significant efforts are being made in the field of technical and vocational education to increase its quality and responsiveness to the needs of industrial and agricultural development. These efforts include revision of curriculum, teacher and instructor training, research and improvement of educational materials, and the expansion of existing institutions. At the same time in Ukraine there are new progressive trends in the system of higher education.

In many universities, the Bologna process is being introduced. It’s influence on our higher education not evident yet, but in a few years, when teachers and students will understand its essence and will get used to it, it will bring the Ukrainian education closer to the European level. There are still some points in our system of higher education that need to be changed. First of all, Specialist’s degree, which is not recognized anywhere in Europe or other advanced countries, has to be cancelled, and only Master’s degree should be left instead.

Then, Bachelor’s degree has to be accepted as the first degree of higher education, as it is everywhere in the civilized world. In general, the Ukrainian higher education needs to be relieved of the remains of the Soviet education system, and then it will be possible to upgrade it efficiently. REFERENCES 1. “Global Exchange” website, “Education in Honduras”. 2. “Honduras Education” from the Library of Congress Country Studies. 3. IAU, World Higher Education Database “Honduras – Education System”. 4. Information and Monitoring Sheet for Statistical Capacity Building in Education 2003-2005. Honduras.

Jeanne Moulton “An Outline of the Educational Sy.