Gideon counselor Ivin Oyuela helps seven-year-old Oscar learn basic reading and writing skills.

Teacher strikes, curfews, and political crisis led to Honduran public school students receiving fewer than 100 days of class in 2009. A large percent of students are desperately behind. Many still cannot read or write their own names. But despite these problems, the government chose to pass every public school student to the next grade, without exceptions, when the Honduran school year, which runs from February through October, recently ended.

The staff of the AJS Gideon Centers—offices in poor neighborhoods that provide low-cost counseling and legal aid—is responding to this situation by offering vacation educational enrichment to more than 200 students in three poor neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa.

The Gideon classes, which run from November through January, focus on reinforcement in Spanish and mathematics and are for public school students from first through sixth grade.  

Nazaria Romero, the Gideon Project coordinator, said the purpose of the classes is to fill in the gaps left by a shortened and erratic school year. “This project came out of the recognition that these kids are not ready to move on to the next grade,” said Nazaria. She added that the Gideon Center staff were well equipped to take on this project, as they provide tutoring for students with learning disabilities all year long, a service the cash-strapped Honduran public school system cannot provide. This year the Gideon Centers provided tutoring for 65 kids.

Seven-year-old Oscar, one of the students giving up his vacation to prepare for the upcoming school year, is a first grader from Nueva Suyapa who says he wants to be a lawyer when he grows up. According to his teacher and member of the Gideon Center staff, Ivin Oyuela, Oscar has made impressive progress in recognizing his letters and is even sounding out basic words. When asked what his favorite part of the day was, he did not say recess or snack time. “I like to learn my letters,” he said. “I really like playing word games.”

Nazaria said her goal was to provide classes for 160 students, but demand has been even higher than expected: Gideon staff are currently giving classes to 200 kids! Nazaria attributes the high number of partipants to the name recognition that the Gideon Centers have in the communities where they are located.

When parents heard about this new program they were eager to sign their children up. “We thought that no one would want to give us their vacation,” said Nazaria. “But now the students are excited about the classes because they are more interactive than normal school.”       

The Gideon staff who are teaching the classes are putting in extra hours so they can still attend to the clients seeking psychological and legal assistance in the Gideon Centers.  Thanks to this Gideon Center program, at least 200 children will advance to the next grade in February confident and ready to succeed.

February 1, 2010 Update:
The program ended in January with an educational and recreational trip to the Chiminike Children’s Museum. This was a special treat for the participants, most of whom have never had the chance to visit the modern, kid-friendly attraction.

Parents were very thankful that Gideon provided this free two-month tutoring service and Gideon staff remarked that the project was well worth it as these children are much more prepared to move onto the next grade than they would have been without the emergency tutoring.

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