THE ISSUE OF THE SPACE IN THE FORMER CONVENT OF LA MERCED: THE RESTRUCTURE OF THE NATIONAL SECONDARY SCHOOL OF TEGUCIGALPA (1878-1890)

Abstract

The National Secondary School of Tegucigalpa represented the consolidation and ratification of secondary education in Honduras, under the 19th century’s positivist and liberal principles. This article addresses the history of institutions, from the historical conception of “institution” proposed by the Argentine historian and lawyer Víctor Tau Anzoátegui, exposing the issue of the space granted to the National Secondary School in the establishment of the old convent of La Merced in its first twelve years of existence (1878-1890).

Thus, through the method of direct fact-finding investigation with content analysis, proposed by the Polish historian Jerzy Topolski, the course of action taken by the government of Luis Bográn, through the Secretariat of Public Instruction and the Supreme Council of Public Instruction, in the remodelling and expansion of the Central Universitybuilding, between 1888 and 1890, are detailed. This, in turn, led to an administrative restructuring on the National Secondary School of Tegucigalpa, transforming it into the National Institute of Secondary Education and School of Arts and Trades in 1889; and to the establishment of its two new sections in 1890.