Fostering Good Governance at School Level in Honduras: The Role of Transparency Bulletin Boards

Abstract

Corruption is at the core of weak governance. In the education sector, corruption is a threat to the quality of and access to education. Although the diagnosis is straightforward, effective reforms are more difficult to implement. The principles of good governance (transparency, participation, accountability, and integrity) provide us guidance, but innovative ways need to be found to fill these principles with life and create dynamics of change. We present a simple, efficient experience of introducing transparency and fostering participation and therefore accountability at the school level in Honduras. The transparency bulletin boards (murales de transparencia) are a homegrown response to the call for improving governance in a challenging environment.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Delmys Marlene Chávez, Karen Lanza, Marco Antonio Morales, Patricia Zambrano (Ministry of Education, Transparency Unit); Martha Lizeth Rodríguez (DDE La Paz); María Isabel Urquía (La Paz CCT Network); Noemí Rubio (La Paz Women's Network); Aldaberto Melgar (DDi Cabañas); Christian Luy and José Noel Torres (PROEFA). We extend special thanks to Claudia Patricia Aguilar and Nely Suyapa Oliva (PROEFA) for research assistance and to Lynn Davis and Stephen Heyneman for helpful comments.

Notes

The Corruption Perception Index score of Honduras in 2012, as published by Transparency International, was 28 (http://www.transparency.org/cpi2012/results). The Corruption Perception Index scores range from very clean (100) to highly corrupt (0). Honduras ranked 133 of 176 countries/territories in the 2012 index. Higher ranking countries are perceived to be cleaner and lower ranking countries more corrupt.

Indeed, Hubbard (2007) explained that the reform dynamic was more complex than just the newspaper campaign.

A social audit conducted in Intibucá, Honduras, has shed light on many of these practices (see Consejo Nacional de Anticorrupción, 2009).

For more detailed information and other sources see, for instance, the reports from Freedomhouse (2007), USAID (2008), World Bank (2009), and the Bertelsmann Stiftung (2012). Boehm (2011) provided a general discussion and review of corruption and governance indicators for Honduras.

This data for 2006 and 2010 can be found at the World Bank Enterprise Surveys website (http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/Data).

Many press articles also refer to this situation (see, e.g., “Persisten Irregularidades,” 2011).

Audit reports are available at the Tribunal Superior de Cuentas website (http://www.tsc.gob.hn). September 26, 2011. http://www.transformemoshonduras.com/CP/tsc.php.

Application of the Stallings method of classroom evaluation in 754 classrooms in 153 schools in Honduras in 2011 revealed that teachers were involved in academic activity on average 64% of class time. Otherwise, they were either socializing in the hallways or doing other nonteaching tasks during class time. Sixty-four percent is 21 percentage points below the OECD standard for good practice (Secretaria de Educación, 2011, p. 27)

In Honduras, education administrators (Department and District Education Directors) and School Directors are teachers by profession and, by law, members of at least one teacher's union.

Ley de Municipalidades de Honduras, Art. 59 reforma 2010.

Although the Honduran National Association of Municipalities did not play an active role in the initial design, we think that they can and will be a key player in the future development of the initiative at the national level.

A randomized monitoring exercise in Intibucá and Santa Bárbara showed that the majority of the schools in Santa Bárbara without a bulletin board (40%) are PROHECO schools. As a reason the report puts forward weak communication between PROHECO school directors and DDi and DDE (Iraheta, 2011). Another randomized monitoring exercise in Lempira, Copán, and Ocotepeque found that from the sample of 125 visited schools, only five didn't install the bulletin board, four of them being PROHECO schools (Lemus, 2011).

The Minister himself was a powerful union leader for 14 years before joining the newly elected administration in 2010. He was president of the second largest union PRICHMA (Primer Colegio Magisterial de Honduras) and instrumental in negotiating for the generous teachers benefits guaranteed in the controversial legislation of 1997 (Estatuto Docente).

Secretaría de Educación, Reporte General 25 de enero 2010. http://www.se.gob.hn/190.5.81.199/SEE/archivos descargables.php. Centros de Educacion Pre-basica were excepted from this policy. Centros de Educacion Pre-basica are managed by community volunteers.

Based on Iraheta (2011) and Lemus (2011).

Information provided by the Transparency Unit, Ministry of Education (personal communication, January 26, 2012).

Ampliar y optimizar el proyecto Murales de Transparencia, Unidad de Transparencia, SE 2011.

Oficio No. 0075-SE-2012, June 6, 2012.

It is worth noting anecdotally that the issue of integrity was also relevant in discussions and work with civil society organizations. In a context where “yellow journalism” is the norm, it was not only important but also necessary to stress the importance of documenting objective evidence and promoting dialogue in the interest of finding constructive solutions to common problems, instead of allowing the initiative to be co-opted in the service personal agendas and vendettas.

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