Rhetoric to Reality - Affordable Bilingual Education in Honduras

The last several months have been an exciting time for Bilingual Education for Central America (BECA), a grassroots, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting cultural exchange and affordable, and high quality bilingual education in Central America. In July, the organization announced its new strategic plan for growth and since then has been making big strides towards its successful execution. This plan focuses on strengthening bilingual education in Honduras by building a network of high-quality, low-cost schools based on community partnerships.

The idea of BECA was first conceived in 2001 by a small group of ambitious North Americans volunteering in Cofradia, Cortes. They envisioned the organization as one that would not only supply quality education for the students, but a dynamic immersion experience for the volunteer teachers as well. Founder Jaime Koppel says, “From the beginning we understood that in order for our model to be sustainable it would have to be developed in collaboration with the community.”

In 2004, a group of dedicated parents and community members began construction of San Jeronimo Bilingual School and in September of that year classes commenced. From the first day onwards, the school has been operated through a partnership between BECA and the Asociacion de Padres Proeducación de Cofradia. Today, over 200 students in Pre-K through ninth grade receive a quality bilingual education at San Jeronimo from a multicultural teaching staff that includes eleven North Americans working on behalf of BECA. The school strives to support each student in achieving proficiency in both Spanish and English. According to current BECA Administrator, Jessica Gorelick, providing this opportunity is central to helping “move nations from where they are to where they strive to be.”

The unique model developed by BECA includes Honduran management of the school, small class sizes and a needs-based sliding scale tuition program. At San Jeronimo, the contract between BECA and the community ensures that a full 25% of students receive scholarships for enrollment. Scholarship families, each of which has demonstrated significant financial need, complete a monthly service requirement that allows them to take great pride in their own contributions to the school. Tuition paid by non-scholarship and partial scholarship students covers the school’s operating expenses (including Honduran teacher salaries and basic utilities) and BECA covers costs associated with the volunteer teaching program.

The collaborative nature of the school has created a strong culture of community engagement and enables the teachers to work closely with families on behalf of their children. At the same time, this close relationship with families gives teachers the opportunity to build friendships, practice their Spanish and learn more about Honduran culture. Hilary Hammell, a BECA teacher in 2006-2007, lived with one of her students’ families for much of the year, which allowed her “to truly witness and even participate in the Honduran way of life first-hand.”

One of the exciting initiatives that the organization was able to launch this year was the inaugural Summer Institute, an intensive teacher training and cultural immersion program designed exclusively by BECA and the Alison Bixby Stone School.

This program provides the BECA teaching team with five weeks of pedagogical instruction, classroom management training, Spanish language classes, home stays and cultural immersion to build the teachers’ capacity, confidence and cultural understanding before the start of the academic year.

BECA’s modest operating budget is built through a combination of donations, grants and proceeds from its innovative Social Tourism program. This program allows groups to make the relatively inexpensive trip to Cofradia to assist with activities around the school, experience Honduran culture, engage in panel and workshop discussions on current political and social issues and relax. In return for the organization and facilitation of these trips, the participants fundraise on behalf of BECA.

As a result of the positive experiences BECA has had working in Cofradia and the many lessons that have been learned, the organization is now prepared to move forward with its strategic plan for growth. The centerpiece of this plan is the expansion into new communities in Honduras over the next two years. In preparation for this exciting next step, BECA has recently hired alumnus Laurence Birdsey to guide the expansion plan. Birdsey is currently focused on identifying potential donors and partners both inside and outside of Honduras to help grow a network of schools modeled on San Jeronimo.

BECA’s vision is for this network of collaboration to empower educational development throughout Central America. To each partner school, BECA will supply a whole curriculum and will train new teachers through the Summer Institute program. In addition, BECA aims to provide ongoing professional development opportunities and support for all teachers at the schools. In exchange for these services, each partner school will provide need-based scholarships to a specified percentage of students, small class sizes and a well-kept school facility to foster learning, exploration and exchange. Birdsey notes that “BECA has been honing its model for the past five years in Cofradia, and it is now time that we scale up our program in order to provide many more Honduran students with high-quality, affordable bilingual education. We are excited to talk with anyone who has creative ideas for how we might partner and grow our program in the coming years.”

For more information on BECA and how you can get involved, please visit www.becaschools.org or contact Laurence Birdsey at email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .