National Education Fund - Haiti Observer Blog

How many of you believe that our education system has a lot to do with our inability to change Haiti? Making us into: "Aristrokrat Dyol Printi"; "Ti France", "Mwe Pa Min Moun Avek-ou". To tell you the truth, these are what I see our education system is good for.

We are proud of speaking French than the French born citizen. Our love to use French words in our sentences so complicated and so rare in usage that the a typical French citizen would probably ask you to provide some translation for then

Unfortunately, this is the most important thing I have learned from my education in Haiti.

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So far, it seems that we can not have an exact number. And why is that?

Remember that this is Haiti and we work under different standards. We are kind of unique in the way we see things

Listen to this, President Michel Martelly told the Haitian Diaspora community in Miami during a visit in Florida in December 2012 that the National Fund for Education, established in May 2011, had accumulated $16 million in US and not a penny of this money had been touched by the Haitian government.

The problem I have with this statement from our president is that there was an account given already and by someone that should know exactly how much money they have collected for the National Fund for Education.

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Upon his election in April 2011, Martelly vowed to provide free education to Haitians. He went on with this plan by launching the National Education Fund (FNE), which was supposed to be funded by taxes collected from international calls and money transfers. Even though the constitution denies the president the power to levy taxes, the government pushed through with Martelly's plan.

The program sounded promising but six months after its implementation, concerns started to arise, with people asking where the fund is being used. Martelly himself said he didn't know the exact amount the plan has collected so far and pointed journalists to CONATEL, which is the one managing the fund. CONATEL then revealed that only Digicel and COMCEL were included in their accounts. No one can say how much the fund is. Some said it's $28 million, while others insisted that it's only $2 million.

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We in the Diaspora are being hit once again. After levying a tax on the money I send to Haiti to pay for my children's education. After taxing the phone call I make to my family to make sure they received the money. Now it's the turn for the government to take part of the money I send to my family itself. The latest scam by the Haitian government is the decision that will require all money transfers in direction to Haiti to be delivered in Haitian Gourdes.

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