Caribbean & Central America - October 2022

Guatemalan and Honduran children attend school for significantly less time than the regional average, according to a recent report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Both Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei and Honduras’ President Xiomara Castro addressed the power of education during appearances at the UN General Summit (UNGA) on 19-20 September. Giammattei told attendees that education systems should prepare students for a rapidly changing world, and he underlined the efforts of his government to provide food for students during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

However, according to the UNDP Human Development Report (HDR), published 8 September, in 2021 a child of school entrance age in Honduras could expect to receive 10.1 years of schooling, the lowest in the region, with Guatemala second lowest on 10.6 years. This compares with Nicaragua (12.6 years), El Salvador (12.7), Panama (13.1), and Costa Rica (16.5).

Guatemala and Honduras also struggle in terms of life expectancy at birth, recording scores of 69.2 years and 70.1 years respectively. El Salvador is next with 70.7 years, followed by Nicaragua (73.8), Panama (76.2), and Costa Rica (77.0). The two nations are also bottom of the regional ranking in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI). Honduras placed 138 in the world, with Guatemala second worst at 133 in the world. Nicaragua (129) and El Salvador (124) fared slightly better, while Panama (67) and Costa Rica (57) performed strongly.

Interestingly, there is some divergence between Honduras and Guatemala when it comes to gross national income per capita. Honduras is bottom of the regional ranking with US$5,298, followed by Nicaragua (US$5,625) and El Salvador (US$8,296). On this score Guatemala does better, with US$8,723 per capita, followed by perennial strong performers Costa Rica (US$19,974) and Panama (US$26,957). This suggests that while Honduras’ struggles to improve HDI performance are linked to low levels of economic development, Guatemala, with its GNI per capita of US$8,723, should be ranked higher than 133 in the world for HDI. For example, Nicaraguan children can expect to receive 12.6 years of schooling, 2.0 years more than their peers in Guatemala, despite the country recording GNI per capita of just US$5,625. 

UNDP figures show that this is an historic problem, given the huge disparity in average years of schooling received by adults in Guatemala (5.7 years) compared to Honduras and Nicaragua (both 7.1 years), but President Giammattei needs to do more than pay lip service to the transformative power of education and dedicate more resources to the sector.