Really? Another Change?

The minister was heard. A new education system was applied in the year 2014. After decades of living and applying the Honduran education, it has changed in many ways. Are these changes affecting you?

 One of the many things that have changed with this education system is the grading techniques. This affects all schools and teachers in Honduras. Now the teachers cannot distribute the points like it was established. The government forces them to use the new system which consists of grading 40% in classwork, 30% in homework and 30% in tests. They are able to choose how to distribute these points and can sort them in activities they create or activities the government establishes, but they cannot break or split these points into the wrong categories (classwork, homework, tests).

            This also affects students in both positive and negative ways. Before this new system was applied, students graduated in sixth grade, but now they don’t. The cause of this is the new system.  This new system establishes that elementary school ends in ninth grade, where as previously it ended in sixth grade.

            “This new method is definitely demanding more time. Students should give a hundred percent from the beginning,” said Luis Diego from 10^th grade.

            This also means that ninth graders must do social work, since they will graduate. If they do not do social work, they won’t graduate. This is an example of how the new system affects “so called” elementary. Students tangled in this new system must do another grade (12^th grade), this has awakened the rage of many people.  Some people consider it a negative or troublesome change, yet some others as Greyci, our 10^th grade student, think “It’s a good idea.  It really prepares us for college and somehow makes us give more effort in our classes from the beginning of the year. It requires more responsibility, yet it is helpful for us to have a little taste of university.”

            The new system has certainly changed many things. Students are not the only ones suffering these changes; teachers are also trapped by the new system. As our students and educators feel the weight of this new system we will find out if this is the light that Honduras needs or the demise of education as we know it.