The fragile state of education in Haiti

[Ric]

The fragile state of education in Haiti
By Carlos Sousa Oliveira and Mónica Amaral Ferreira, ICIST/IST,
Portugal

Six months after the earthquake that shook Haiti in January 2010, what
had been accomplished? It is urgent that schools, in particular,
function again: for many Haitians, education is practically the only
escape route out of poverty.

In January 2010 Haiti was rocked by an earthquake which devasted the
already impoverished nation. The last quake of this magnitude hit the
island some 250 years ago and modern Haiti has been much more
concerned about increasingly frequent hurricanes than about
earthquakes which fade from the collective memory. For this reason, as
well as economic constraints, since 1950 builders have been using poor
cement block masonry which support two to three storeys of heavy
reinforced concrete slabs, giving practically no seismic protection.
This, as well as unfavourable soil and topographic conditions, explain
the extent of the catastrophy: thousands of structures collapsed,
among which were Haiti’s schools. According to the Ministry of
Education, 1 234 schools were destroyed and 2 504 were damaged [1].
Haiti’s best universities are in ruins; the country’s main nursing
school is gone, as is the state medical college.

Education was hardly a priority for past governments: the country
lacks schools, teaching material and qualified teachers and seven out
of ten people in Haiti are illiterate. Already before the earthquake
25% of rural areas were without schools and an estimated 500 000
children of school age did not attend school, largely because their
parents needed them to work or simply could not afford school fees:
about 90% of Haiti's schools are small and private (run by a religious
order and urban-based) [2].

Shortly after the earthquake, Portugal dispatched a team of
researchers to Haiti to assess its social impact and the country’s
engineering challenges. Six months after the event, it found that
hardly any rubble had been cleared or any essential decisions made in
terms of development plans and reorganisation. Few, if any, major
reconstruction contracts had been awarded. However, many small primary
and secondary level schools had reopened and students, smartly dressed
in their school uniforms, had re-emerged on the streets. Amazingly,
the Haitians did not show any signs of suffering. They seem to have a
great resilience to devastating events - after all, they have lived
through many.

Will this dramatic event provide an opportunity to build better
schools and create a valid public education system which will meet
Haiti’s needs? Haitians certainly would like to believe that it will:
many of them are convinced that education is practically the only
escape route out of poverty.

If this is to happen, over the coming years Haiti will need to bring
about massive changes in its education system: it will need to improve
the quality of teaching, train better teachers, offer scholarship
programmes to Haitian students to study abroad and, most important,
create a large number of public schools. Reconstruction efforts, as
well as government conviction, will need to be unprecedented.

For more information, contact:
Carlos Sousa Oliveira
ICIST/IST (Instituto de Engenharia de Estruturas, Território e
Construção, Instituto Superior Técnico, T U Lisbon)
Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
E-mail: cso...@civil.ist.utl.pt

Mónica Amaral Ferreira
ICIST/IST

Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
E-mail: mon...@civil.ist.utl.pt

[1] www.oecd.org/dataoecd/7/54/45671734.pdf
[2] http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/29/haiti_watch_education_after_the_quake