Haiti education

Haiti education



Haiti education

Overview

Haiti was, after the USA, the first nation in the entire American continent to gain its independence (in 1804). Right from the beginning, the importance of education was recognised and the first Constitution, promulgated in 1805, noted explicitly that '... education shall be free. Primary education shall be compulsory. State education shall be free at every level'. (Cummings, Riddell, 1994a)

But these principles were never put into practice. Only a small number of primary schools and high schools were built by the government to serve the children of the political elite, predominantly in urban areas. These schools were patterned after the French and British models. At the end of the nineteenth century, there were only 350 public schools. The number had risen to 730 by the eve of the American Occupation in 1917 but the proportion of children attending these schools represented only 11% of the reference age group. During the 1940s, the government started to define educational policies better adapted to the Haitian context and efforts were made to expand public education coverage. However, the policy of relative neglect continued during the Duvalier era and there was even a deterioration of conditions in public schools as many qualified teachers left the country to escape political repression. (Cummings, Riddell, 1994a)

Discussion

To compensate for the slow growth of the public school network, many religious communities established their own educational institutions. In most recent years, a number of non-denominational, for-profit schools were also started in the cities. While private education represented only 20% in 1959-1960, in 1979-1980, private schools accounted for 57% of enrolment in primary education, and 80% in secondary education. Between 1960 and 1971, enrolment stagnated in the public sector, as only 158 new schools were built during the entire period, mostly with external financing. (Cummings, Riddell, 1994a) During the 1980s, the average annual growth rates in private and public enrolment were 11 and 5%, respectively. Today, private education represents about 75% of primary school enrolment and 82% at the secondary level, as illustrated by Figure l.

This situation calls for two observations. First, for all practical purposes, private education is the norm in Haiti while public schools, which cater for less than 10% of the school age population, are the minority. Second, it should be emphasised that the Haitian private education system has grown by default, one could almost say by despair, rather than by deliberate intention of the State.

The Haitian education experience is rather unique in a worldwide perspective, especially considering the level of absolute poverty of the country. Of the 20 poorest countries in the world, Haiti is the only one with more than 50% of children enrolled in the private sector. In the African countries that have inherited a European type model with strong public systems, private education is relatively small and is either confessional or remedial. A few exceptions are found in Francophone Africa and in Southern Africa. In the former, a few countries have followed the French variant of the Continental ...