e-learning centre on sustainable development
CASE STUDIES IN SUSTAINABILITY
Rural Education
Rural education in Honduras
from Michael Richards
The Bahá’í Agency of Social and Economic Development (BASED-UK) is particularly supporting rural education projects, mainly in Honduras and India. One of those projects is the Bayan Association for Indigenous Socio-Economic Development in Honduras. The System of Tutorial Learning (SAT), developed by FUNDAEC in Colombia, is now being mainstreamed in the form of a gradual expansion into a national programme by the Government of Honduras with funding from the Inter American Development Bank, Ford Foundation, Canadian CIDA and Pestalozzi Foundation, Switzerland. There are currently about 3,600 SAT students studying. This is due to increase to 6,000 next year and 17,000 by 2009. SAT currently operates in 7 of Honduras' 19 Departments, with collaboration of 7 other NGOs as well as the Ministry of Education. SAT is getting increasing recognition, for example: a 2005 Ministry of Education report on the development of alternative education models in Honduras notes that: "among the models developing educational actions in these villages, one of the most important is the initiative of Bayan Organization ..... thus a programme of alternative education is starting using a flexible methodology through the Tutorial Learning System, SAT, which by developing contents relevant to the aspirations and real needs of the rural population, has shown itself to be adapted to the special conditions of rural people."
The SAT curriculum materials are now available in English from FUNDAEC, Colombia: go to www.fundaec.org (click on English version), and Bayan's website now has an English description of SAT: www.bayan_hn.org.
From 9th IEF Electronic Conference 2005
