Education - Haiti Observer Blog

Haiti suffers from a very low literacy level of 53%, well under the 90% average in other South-region countries. A plethora of reasons exist as to why this is so. Private schools teach 90% of the school population, operated by churches, non-government organizations, and communities. The government of Haiti (GOH) spends only a fraction of its budget, 10%, on education for primary and high-school grades.

Haiti's first Constitution stated ". . . education shall be free". And the Constitution of 1987 declares education is "a right for every citizen". But neither of these goals has been realized. Private schools, 75% of them, have received no accreditation from MOE, meaning they are not held to minimum standards.

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Georges Anglade was a Haitian creole writer who was born in Port-au-Price on July 18, 1944. He received his education from École normale supérieure and then and then went on to obtain a diploma degree in Social Sciences and also received a law degree from the Faculty of Law in the year 1965. The same year he moved to Strasbourg. From 1965 to 1969 he studied at Strasbourg's Centre for Applied Geography and went on to obtain a doctorate graduate degree. During September 1969 he moved to Quebec, Canada where he played a very crucial role at Université du Québec à Montréal and founded the Department of Geography with some other learned friends.

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Institution Saint-Louis de Gonzague, Haiti is a primary and secondary Roman Catholic school located in Haiti. Freres de l'Instruction Chretienne or F.I.C. or Brothers of Christian Instruction run this school. The official colors of the school are green and red. It is the island nation's most prestigious school that was established in the year 1890 at rue du Center located at downtown Port-au-Prince. It was first opened for students belonging to the age group of 6 and 12. The institution started offering degree courses for the secondary school by the year 1930 and the school experienced a major expansion during the early phase of 1970s.

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Ecole Elie Dubois in Port-au-Prince is a vocational school for girls. It is located only 2 blocks away from the Presidential Palace located at downtown Port-au-Price. This vocational school is run by 7 nuns. These nuns, including director Soeur Josette, used to live in the campus of the Ecole Elie Dubios School before the Island country was hit by the devastating earthquake in 2010. As of date, these nuns commute across the capital city Port-au-Price. The school campus has several historic buildings that were damaged because of the earthquake but are currently being restored along with rest of the campus.

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College Notre Dame Du Perpetuel Secours, Cap-Haitian is Roman Catholic private primary and secondary school for males only. Congregation of Holy Cross in Cap-Haïtien established the school is Haiti in the year 1904. 4 secular Catholic Priest originally ruled the school but the Brothers of Christian Instruction also presided over the school. The Brothers of Christian Instruction also presided over various educational institutions of religious foundation spread through the island country. Over 90% of the College Notre Dame Du Perpetuel Secours, Cap-Haitian attend some institution for higher education of which, the Universite Notre Dame d'Haiti is the most prominent one.

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Located at Port-au-Prince in Haiti, the Collège Canado-Haitien is a school that was established in 1969 in Turgeau. The school was founded by Brothers of the Sacred Heart. Canado-Haitien later integrated students attending high school in other schools founded by Brothers of the Sacred Heart like Saint-Jean L'Evangeliste, Pope John XVIII School and Liberia School. The Canado-Haitien also served students of other schools like Saint-Louis de Gonzague School, The Petit Séminaire Collège Saint Martial and others.

Collège Canado-Haitien had a four-floor campus before the 2010 earthquake and consisted of 31 classrooms, the secretariat, a cafeteria, a library, an auditorium, the Direction (place for bureau of counselors, asst. principals and principals), two volleyball and two basketball courts. Right next to the Collège Canado-Haitien was the center of Canado-technical center. The building of Canado-technical center was also hit by the earthquake and was damaged severely. It is now being repaired. The Collège Canado-Haitien was hit badly and of 31 classrooms, only 3 are intact. The Direction, the secretariat and the cafeteria were not harmed by the earthquake.

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Haitian born writer Dany Laferrière has spent his career writing things that provoke. From his work in the weekly 'Le Petit Samedi Soir' to his first novel, 'How to make love to a Negro' (1987), Laferrière has carved his success with the blade of controversy, whether real or formulated.

He was born in Port-au-Prince as Windsor Kléber Laferrière on April 13, 1953. After growing up in Petit Goâve, he began working as a journalist until the late 1970's when the weekly he wrote in collaboration with Gaston Raymond most likely led to the murder of the latter. Laferrière felt it best to relocate to Canada.

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The list of ordinary men, not kings or presidents or any other in an official capacity, who have influenced true and lasting forward movement in their home countries, is a short one. The list of Haitian writers who have created a legacy of literary, social and political worth is shorter still. The efforts of one such ordinary Haitian writer puts him at the pinnacle of both lists and elevates him from an ordinary Haitian writer to a legend of extraordinary significance to Haiti, it's Diaspora and many other countries in the world.

Morisseau-Leroy lived a long life from 1912 to 1998. At the beginning, his upbringing in a prosperous mulatto family saw him well-educated and fluent in French and English. His lucky, unchallenged existence was soon broadened by the addition of a wife, whom he credited as his muse, who famously admired his horsemanship, and would later give him three children.

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"I am this: this earth here, and I have it in my blood. Look at my color; it seems as though the earth faded onto me and onto you too."

Jacques Roumain, like many of history's other literary giants, lived a short life but managed to leave such brilliant words behind they would be spoken for centuries following his death. Through his poems he opened up a colorful, complex world that harkened to the struggles of his contemporaries and has given fodder for great new works by those he inspired and homage-paying re-enactments in the present.

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Jacques-Stephen Alexis was born in 1922 with literary blood already in his veins courtesy of his writer father, Stephen Alexis. His upbringing in Haiti and the influence of other prolific Haitian writers, like Jacques Roumain before him, molded Alexis into one of the country's most well loved writers.

Though he'd completed his schooling in medicine, writing had remained a passion and he gained early recognition on his first piece, an essay on the poet, Hamilton Garoute. This early success was soon followed by his work with La Ruche and then by a string of novels which tended towards the heavy narrative telling of the Haitian city-dwelling peasant.

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