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FOCUSING ON THE CHILDREN

Uni­ver­sal Edu­ca­tion: A Renewal of Haiti’s Edu­ca­tion Sys­tem

The edu­ca­tion sec­tor in Haiti was in a state of cri­sis long before the Jan­u­ary 12, 2010 earth­quake which affected half of the nation’s edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions. Edu­ca­tion in Haiti was typ­i­fied by a fee-based pri­vate sys­tem, with 80% of edu­ca­tion ser­vices pro­vided by the non-public sec­tor. The major­ity of schools were inac­ces­si­ble for those liv­ing out­side of Port-au-Prince with 25 per­cent of Haiti’s dis­tricts located in rural areas and not hav­ing one school. Lit­er­acy lev­els in Haiti hov­ered at an abysmal 53% lit­er­acy rate for school aged chil­dren, 38% of Haitians above the age of 15 are lit­er­ate, with sig­nif­i­cantly less adult lit­er­acy among women than among men. Under­gird­ing this dual pub­lic verses pri­vate struc­ture of inequitable edu­ca­tion are ide­olo­gies that have played out over two cen­turies. Many youth received infe­rior, trun­cated, and seg­re­gated edu­ca­tion. As chil­dren under 18 account for almost half of Haiti’s total pop­u­la­tion of 9 mil­lion per­sons, the pub­lic edu­ca­tion sys­tem is undoubt­edly a crit­i­cal ele­ment in rebuild­ing and strength­en­ing the nation’s polit­i­cal and socio-economic development.

Six-Months After the Earthquake

• As many as 79%, of chil­dren in camps have no access to cen­ters of learning
• UNICEF has empha­sized that the longer chil­dren are out of school, the more vul­ner­a­ble they become to exploita­tion or abuse
• Most schools are still oper­at­ing on a fee-based sys­tem that excludes the major­ity of poor Hait­ian youth
• Half of Haiti’s 15,000 pri­mary schools and 1,500 sec­ondary schools were destroyed or badly dam­aged in the earthquake

Given these grim real­i­ties, the imme­di­ate pri­or­ity must be the child wel­fare, nutri­tion, and secu­rity of these chil­dren fol­lowed by a clear plan for the build­ing of key infra­struc­ture for learn­ing and a strong focus on edu­ca­tion reform at the pri­mary and sec­ondary lev­els through the pro­mo­tion of uni­ver­sal education

Edu­ca­tion must be a key pri­or­ity if Haiti is to move away from a model char­ac­ter­ized by the under­uti­liza­tion of human resources– a con­cern high­lighted by USAID since 1986. Haitians truly value edu­ca­tion and have car­ried the weight of fund­ing it. Hait­ian stu­dents bring to school a sense of resiliency and a rich fund of knowl­edge, lan­guage, and cul­ture from their every day expe­ri­ences; there­fore schools can no longer greet them from a deficit model.

If qual­ity, pub­li­cally and ade­quately funded pub­lic schools are built, stu­dents will come and they will suc­ceed. Dis­course and strate­gic plans in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Hait­ian Dias­pora must also occur to ade­quately imple­ment these plans and ensure the suc­cess of its deliv­ery. The renewal of Haiti’s edu­ca­tion sys­tem is the future of build­ing in-country capac­ity, empow­er­ing its youth with knowl­edge and access to resources to secure a bet­ter life for tomorrow.

Strate­gic Plan for Edu­ca­tion Reconstruction

1.    Qual­ity Uni­ver­sal Edu­ca­tion For All (EFA) to assure equi­table access **

a.    Pri­mary, Sec­ondary and Higher edu­ca­tion must be decen­tral­ized so that it is avail­able to those who live out­side of major urban centers.

b.   Build schools with safe build­ing codes includ­ing pro­vi­sions with access for stu­dents with disabilities

c.    Pro­vide free meals (break­fast and lunch)

d.   Pro­vide free trans­porta­tion and san­i­ta­tion when appro­pri­ate and potable water

e.    Pro­vide uni­forms, school sup­plies, and textbooks

f.    Imple­ment tech­nol­ogy ready schools with Media Cen­ters and Libraries

2.   Fos­ter coop­er­a­tion between the Hait­ian Gov­ern­ment and pri­vate edu­ca­tion institutions

a.    The Hait­ian Gov­ern­ment must be armed with the tools to ful­fill the edu­ca­tional needs of the pop­u­la­tion. While NGOs and the pri­vate sec­tor may par­tially fill this vital need, the gov­ern­ment must have the capac­ity to pro­vide a free pri­mary and sec­ondary edu­ca­tion to all of Haiti’s chil­dren.  Cost-sharing meth­ods may be employed to accel­er­ate the accom­plish­ment of this goal:  The Hait­ian Gov­ern­ment can pay for teacher salaries while IOs, Donors, NGOs and other pri­vate orga­ni­za­tions pro­vide safe spaces for chil­dren to learn.

b.   The Hait­ian Gov­ern­ment in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Hait­ian Dias­pora should embark on a mas­sive lit­er­acy cam­paign in the rural regions of the coun­try, in the effort to build an edu­cated, engaged, and polit­i­cally capac­i­tated pop­u­la­tion.

c.    Donors, IOs and NGOs should sup­port the Hait­ian government’s stated goal of less­en­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion and the per­pet­u­a­tion of gender-based stereo­types, guar­an­tee­ing that women and girls have as much access to edu­ca­tion as boys and men.

3.   Enhance the abil­i­ties of teach­ers and administrators **

a.    Ongo­ing pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment of edu­ca­tors and administrators

b.   Higher wages for teach­ers and administrators

c.    Dias­pora Teacher Men­tor­ing Exchange Program

d.   Dias­pora Adop­tion of School/Students Program

4.   Start school readi­ness pro­gram­ming through a com­mu­nity approach that leads to higher edu­ca­tion and voca­tional training **

a.    Develop sec­ond chance edu­ca­tion and adult lit­er­acy programs

b.   Sup­port post-secondary intern­ships for work­force readiness

c.    Build capac­ity of Uni­ver­sity of Haiti through part­ner­ships with Uni­ver­si­ties abroad

d.   Sup­port of Cul­tural Art Centers

5.   Develop cur­ricu­lum with national stan­dards and result-based eval­u­a­tion criteria **

a.    Cre­ate and imple­ment cul­tur­ally rel­e­vant curriculum

b.   Cre­ate and imple­ment dif­fer­en­ti­ated curriculums

c.    Cre­ate and imple­ment Sci­ence, Tech­nol­ogy, Engi­neer­ing and Math­e­mat­ics program

d.   Use mech­a­nisms such as dis­tance learn­ing, media tools, etc.

e.    Cre­ate and imple­ment health and sports program

6.   Pro­vide edu­ca­tion in Cre­ole to help address high illit­er­acy rate **

7.   Address the needs all vul­ner­a­ble groups by imple­ment­ing psycho-social sup­port ser­vices for vul­ner­a­ble groups (spe­cial edu­ca­tion, orphans/unaccompanied minors, restavek/children of domes­tic­ity, exploited chil­dren, dis­abled youths, etc.) **

**Rec­om­men­da­tions made at Hait­ian Dias­pora Forum at the OAS, March 2010, which included Hait­ian Edu­ca­tors and mem­bers of sev­eral edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions.  For more infor­ma­tion on these detailed rec­om­men­da­tions please con­tact Shaina Aber at saber@jesuit.org.