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Case Study: Honduras
Honduras Teachers pay the price for IMF delaying debt relief
In 2000 Honduras qualified for debt relief by the World Bank and IMF. However one of the conditions attached to this was that the Honduras government had to restrict its public spending. These targets set by the IMF were excessivley harmful especially as Honduras had just come through the horrific damage caused by Hurrican Mitch in 1998. Honduras fell out of favour with the IMF when they failed to meet these spending targets and the IMF, World Bank and other donors subsequently suspended Honduras from completing the debt relief process. It took four years for Honduras to get back on track and agree to the spending cuts demanded by the IMF.

Teachers paying the price
The group that is most severely affected by the spending cuts is public sector employees. Representatives from both the IMF and the World Bank have repeatedly stated that teachers make an excessive amount of money. A teacher in primary school in Honduras makes around US$ 250 per month. 250 dollars is not an excessive amount of money in Honduras. The price of the basic food basket is around 200 dollars, which means that a teacher after having paid for food has 50 dollars left to cover housing, transportation, healthcare, education etc.

Honduras is part of the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative. Currently one third of Honduran children do not complete primary school but under this initiative the government has committed itself to decreasing this number to a quarter in 2005 and in 2015 the goal is that all children will complete primary school.
Donors are providing the cost for the initiative except for the teachers salaries. This puts pressure on the budget, as the government will have to employ more teachers to deliver the results promised. The government has therefore been in a terrible position of having to reduce the salaries budget for teachers but at the same time provide schooling for all its children.