Haiti

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Haiti

Basic Data
Official Country Name:	Republic of Haiti
Region:	North & Central America
Population:	6,867,995
Language(s):	French, Creole
Literacy Rate:	45%
Academic Year:	September-October
Number of Primary Schools:	7,306
Compulsory Schooling:	6 years
Educational Enrollment:	Primary: 555,433
	Secondary: 143,758
	Higher: 6,288
Teachers:	Primary: 26,208
	Higher: 654

History & Background

Haiti did not become an independent republic until 1804. The western half of the island that Columbus baptized Hispaniola in 1492 was a French colony known as Saint-Domingue. Haitian education or society cannot be understood today without examining its past, since the sources of all Haitian institutions lie in its history.

At one point there was exclusivity of education in the colony, where all human effort on the plantation was committed to the exploitation of the land. The agrarian economy's awesome demands in time and energy, the roughness of life in an environment deprived of all commodities, and the brutality of a colonial system that depended for survival on oppression precluded any interest in structured education. Creole or freedmen, the rich planters, who themselves rarely laid claim to even an average education, relied on the mother country for the education of their children, while African slaves were forbidden access to literacy.

Anyone who would put a book in the hands of a slave incurred the risk of heavy penalties. Beginning with the Black Code of 1685, in the reign of Louis XIV, the official position of French authorities was that educating servants had the potential to turn loyal servants into rebels. The colonists feared that once educated, the servant population would challenge their authority, would seek reparations, or worse even, would organize to overthrow their régime.

Since sedition had to be stemmed, Africans were kept in a state of abysmal ignorance. Hilliard d'Auberteuil summarizes the rationale behind this attitude: "The interest and safety of the colony demand that we subject the black race to such contempt that anyone whose origins can be traced back to that race will be covered of an indelible stain down to the sixth generation."

The French Governor of Martinique added to this argument: "The safety of the whites demands that we keep the Negroes in the most profound ignorance." In addition to the fear of revolt, there was a pervasive belief that Africans lacked intellectual qualities, as well as the potential for "progress and perfectibility." Montesquieu, the great philosopher of the Enlightenment, who utilized his sharp wit against slavery, alluded ironically to the opinion prevailing among his contemporaries that the people of Africa possessed inferior faculties, that their cognitive apparatus was not open to knowledge on a human scale, and that, consequently, trying to teach them anything would be pointless.

The Black Code in Article 2, nonetheless, provided for some religious instruction, not on humanitarian grounds, but rather from a need to keep the slave population under control. The Black Code did not achieve its goals, however, since only a few colonists chose to use it as a guide. The majority kept all instruction, religious or otherwise, from the slaves. Most administrators in Saint-Domingue believed that the more educated the slaves, the more difficult it was for them to accept their condition. There were, nonetheless, those who defied the oppressive policies and surreptitiously arranged for their slaves to learn how to read and write, not always because it was fair but, above all, because it was practical. The more educated the slave, the more helpful he could be. It is a known fact that some plantation owners not only encouraged practical training with a view to higher productivity, but also favored more than a rudimentary education, especially when their subject was a nègre à talent (a talented black). These slaveholders believed their investments would pay off when the servants would fulfill functions beyond the work of the land. This was the case with the master of Habitation Bréda, the plantation on which Toussaint Louverture was born.

Louverture was given not only a religious education in Catholicism, but he also learned French, Latin, geometry, drawing, as well as the medicinal virtues of plants. Thanks to his knowledge of herbs, he was able to serve the plantation as medicine man and veterinarian. Later, Louverture became the steward of the Bréda livestock and coachman to his master and, subsequently, joined the French Army as a scout, where he rose through the ranks to become General and finally Commander-in-Chief of Saint-Domingue.

Another case in point is Henry Christophe, a slave who worked as a waiter in a public hotel of Cap Français in Saint-Domingue and was given an education. Christophe later became king of Haiti. These are only two examples of a small privileged group that was fortunate enough to find educational opportunities in the colony.

The forced process by which the African slaves were integrated into the colonial community is another fact that will help post-independent Haiti. This brutal adaptation aimed to discourage a reversal to the native culture, therefore eliminating any rivalry between the old structure and the new one. Its purpose was to ensure the highest loyalty to Creole society and to subject the African to an internalization of French superiority. It was at once a mechanism of defense and an economy of force. The conquest of the mind was needed to consolidate power over a submissive population that outnumbered the colonists and that might one day revolt.

The colonial authorities created an intricate social system based on complexion and adhesion to French culture. With few exceptions, the lighter-skinned individuals occupied the higher echelons of the social ladder. Since these individuals were also French, French language and culture conferred a higher social status. At the bottom of the ladder, the black population, though more active and productive, was heavily taxed for lacking the qualities of a light complexion and a knowledge of French. Blacks were left with no other option but to pursue the ideals of language and culture that were set for them. They did so more or less enthusiastically. It was a stigmatizing experience that left its mark on Haitian society to this day. What added to the trauma was that, in order to motivate a quick acculturation, plantation owners offered the Africans a system of rewards that ranged from a simple reduction of their duties to the granting of freedom.

Religion was also used in acculturation. Baptism was the first step toward assimilation and, once baptized, African slaves became nègres créoles (Creole Blacks), a mark of distinction that carried privileges and denoted their status of being in the colony for some time, and therefore were worthy of everyone's trust. By contrast, the newly arrived, nègres bossales (wild, untamed blacks) were supposedly primitive, because they were still attached to traditional African cultures. The most demeaning tasks were assigned to the bossales who were constantly derided and harassed by the nègres créoles and punished by their masters. Brainwashing, indoctrination, derision, and the whip were the methods used to force Creole culture on the African and to suppress all African traditions brought to the colony.

Acculturation did not entail a systematic teaching or learning of the French language. Having lost their original languages, the Africans were not given opportunities to learn French. Instead, a simplified language that had grown out of the pidgins of triangular trade was adopted by masters and slaves alike. This language, like the people who spoke it, was and is still called Creole. Because of the humiliation associated with its history, it never gained favor with the Haitians, even though it has been the only language available to them throughout their history.

When the Haitians won their independence in 1804, they entered the world with a legacy of ignorance. They had neither a structured system of education nor a strategy to fight illiteracy. Even Toussaint Louverture, when he was Governor of Saint-Domingue, showed no interest in changing the status quo. The Constitution of July 8, 1801, for instance, had no elaborate plans for public instruction. In addition, Haitians had inherited two major handicaps: elitism and the powerful presence of French in their cultural landscape.

Constitutional & Legal Foundations

Independence completely changed the political outlook of the new republic. At last, Haitians were in power and had the opportunity to build a nation that responded to the needs and aspirations of its citizens. As expected, public instruction was at the top of the new government's priority list. It is interesting to note how consistently thereafter presidents and legislators have attended to this important issue. Indeed, if the short-lived imperial constitution of Jean-Jacques Dessalines reflected no real passion for the subject, all other charts drafted subsequently made education a pressing matter in the country's administrative programs. The reason for this sustained interest is, of course, the realization that progress depends on education.

These decrees, for all their good intentions, never resulted in a real system of education over a period of two hundred years. Several reasons account for this state of affairs:

political instability
lack of financial resources
absence of a pragmatic mentality seeking to identify the public to be served
a failure to match resources with needs
discord over the details of an appropriate educational system

To exacerbate these evils, mass education continued to be an object of suspicion, as one dictatorial régime after another felt the need to protect itself against an ignorant populace that, if literate, would be more effective and dangerous. Throughout the nineteenth century and until the 1980s, decrees on education took the character of simple formalities that no one cared to implement or they were drafted without interest in the peasant, Creole-speaking majority of the Haitian population.

Henry Christophe, the King of Haiti, made a serious attempt to organize public instruction, as attested by his constitutional act of February 17, 1807. The single most important item of the act is the mandate to create a central school in every arrondissement. The importance of this mandate lies in the fact that it was a proclamation of freedom to teach, and it invited competent individuals to open schools. But the difficulty with this act was that the country lacked competent teachers who could either create the schools or teach in them. Christophe opened an Academy in Cap-Haitien with the help of Haitian and foreign teachers, but it was for the families of public employees.

More interesting was Pétion's Constitution of 1816, which stipulated the universal right to a free education and ordered each commune to open free public institutions to the school age population; this constitution was the most durable that Haiti ever had. It lasted until 1843 and, with a slight modification in 1846, it was still in force in 1867. If one considers that the constitution of Haiti was rewritten at least 20 times in the past 200 years (1801-2001), Pétion's constitution shows an incredible endurance that guaranteed a period of stability and growth for Haitian institutions. It is in this 50-year period that public instruction had the best chance to evolve. With the help of Haitian and foreign educators, Pétion himself had founded a lycée in Port-au-Prince as well as a pensionnat (boarding school) for girls.

Compulsory education was decreed in July 1852 and again in the constitution of 1874. But at those times, neither the empire of Faustin Soulouque nor the short-lived government of Michel Domingue was able to provide the resources necessary to implement such an ambitious plan. Again, these documents fell in the category of abstractions that served no purpose.

Another important document is the Concordat of March 28, 1860, signed by President Geffrard with Pope Pius IX. It involved an agreement with the Vatican to send Catholic educators to Haiti to help with the establishment of parochial schools. Basically, what it entailed was the promotion of the Catholic Church and the education of young men and women who would devote themselves to religious life. This agreement resulted in the establishment of a seminary in Port-au-Prince. Other schools followed and soon there were private Catholic schools in all departments and major cities of Haiti. The Fathers of the Holy Spirit and the Christian Brothers were the first to participate in this missionary endeavor.

The Concordat could only go so far to help Haitian children. To be sure, a small number were selected for a general education, whether or not they had a predilection for clerical life. Others were turned away. The private Catholic schools would compete with free public institutions, since parents would be inclined to send their children to the more exclusive schools. Finally, the European could not give young Haitians an education rooted in the reality of their land. The consequence was a widening of the gap between the masses and the educated elite.

Nevertheless, the 1860s witnessed an unprecedented growth in Haitian education. President Geffrard organized the Medical School, founded a School of Music and a Law School. He sent several teacher trainees to Europe to remedy the shortage of teachers. He founded or reorganized several lycées around the country, especially in Jacmel and Gonaïves. He created special secondary schools for both genders. By 1872, a remarkable intellectual elite was ready to assume the leadership of the nation. Boards of education were formed as well as a Corps of Public Instruction Inspectors. Primary schools multiplied in the cities and in the countryside.

All these accomplishments were due to a period of economic prosperity in Haiti. The United States, engaged in a war at home (1861-1865), needed cotton and other products, so they bought products for a good price from Haiti. Still, the educational system provided little that could be considered relevant to the masses of Haitians. Vocational schools were not considered necessary at the time, even though it would be helpful in promoting light industry.

The 1880s brought several educational achievements that were decreed and successfully realized. President Salomon reorganized the lycées, invited a group of French professors to join the teaching faculty, and opened a sizable number of rural schools for the first time. These schools were so successful that plans were made to promote them further around the country, but the government of Salomon was overthrown.

Apart from the foundation of the State University of Haiti in 1960, no major developments took place either in new constitutions that followed Salomon's government or in occasional decrees. It is now clear that, with regard to education, new governments have only built on their predecessors' accomplishments. Fortunately for the Haitian people, public instruction is the only area where subsequent versions of the constitution have not defeated one another.

The constitution of 1983 brought a fresh set of ideas to the public. For years, there had been a public outcry for relevancy in Haitian education. Since the 1940s, advocates for education in Creole (as the only way out of the linguistic dilemma that plagued Haiti) launched one campaign after another. In the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. lending institutions eager to see change in Haiti posed certain conditions to the government before they made more money available.

In August 1979, a conference in Port-au-Prince was convened to debate the issue of Haiti's elitist, French system of education, which excluded 90 percent of its population. The question before the conference was whether to relegate French to the background and multiply literacy programs in Creole. In addition, the issue of vocational schools was considered by the conference. Then-minister of education Joseph C. Bernard informed the delegates that the government had approved Creole as a language of instruction. Soon thereafter, a law signed by the head of state formally approved of Creole as a vehicle of communication in the classroom and as a subject matter. Then, with the financial support of the World Bank, the president authorized four years of experimentation to test the idea. This process involved 1,000 children studying all subjects in Creole for the first four years of primary school. French was also offered as an ordinary subject, the first two years being scheduled for the speaking skill in French, while the third and fourth years were reserved for reading and writing. Finally, in the fifth year, the pupils received instruction in French. The program was an absolute success until members of the ruling class, fearing that they would lose privileges associated with proficiency in French, demanded that the program be discontinued. The president, eager to maintain his political base among the ruling class, fired the minister and canceled the Creole program in July 1982. Yet, the new constitution of 1983 made French and Creole national languages even though French remained the official language of administration, law, and education.

Educational System—Overview

In the past decade, school schedules have not been uniform because of the addition of privately run schools modeled on American and other systems and the need for schools to adapt to the recent suburban phenomenon. Also, the increase of the school-age population and the lack of personnel, facilities, and equipment have prompted the schools to switch from a full six-hour day to a half-day of four hours. This strategy enabled the schools to serve two groups of pupils a day.

In general, the academic year begins in October and ends in July. With two vacations at Christmas and Easter, the number of hours in the school year is considerably reduced. Those parents who can afford it pay for private lessons in subjects where their children show the greatest need. Competent teachers who are poorly remunerated depend on tutoring to make ends meet and sometimes earn more this way than by regular means. In the more traditional schools, children are admitted at age six and are expected to complete the primary cycle in six years.

Secondary school takes six more years that lead to the first part of the baccalauréat (equivalent of the high school diploma), followed by one more year of study leading to the second part. This system, which is based on the Napoleonic Code, was imported in Haiti by the Concordat and was never reviewed since, even though the French themselves have given it up in the rise of the student protests of May 1968. French remains the language of instruction in the private schools, but Creole and French are used in the public schools.

Students are subject to three sets of trimestrial examinations a year, plus finals in July. The grading system on 10 points is rigid. A grade average of 5 points is required to pass a class. In general, schools are not technologically-equipped. Mediated facilities do exist, however, in a few business and professional schools. Textbooks have always been a concern. Mostly imported, they are often in short supply and their price, like all imported products, can be prohibitive for families who must strive to put food on the table. Many children go to school without books. In addition, the books are not adapted to the Haitian environment. The Haitian system of education is heavily influenced by its French counterpart.

The efforts of Haitian governments to educate their people may seem sincere but, so far, they have not yielded remarkable results. A serious reform is in order that will treat education as a true instrument of progress and development. Education does not appear to be focused on the specific needs of the country. From the outset, the orientation taken by the administration of public education had nothing to do with the reality of Haiti except for the fact that it served the particular interest of an elite who sent their children to study in France and considered themselves French.

In talking about Haitian education, there has been a tendency to focus exclusively on the formal system of education designed for the urban elites who only represent a small minority of the Haitian community, while ignoring the fate of more than 80 percent of the population in the countryside. It is imperative to redefine the scope of Haitian education to rectify this error.

Preprimary & Primary Education

In formal education, children four to six years of age go to the jardins d'enfants (kindergarten) or to the enfantin in the private schools. Traditionally, only families that could afford to pay for this stage of their children's education would consider it at all; these families usually live in the city. The decree of 1982 has not changed that situation, even though it stresses the democratic principle of universal accessibility. Once again, the immense majority of children are left out of the process while a generous system of laws is in place. In addition, the 1990s have witnessed a proliferation of preprimary schools, but they were created for the rich and exist purely for mercantile purposes. In the traditional primary schools, pupils study French grammar, arithmetic, world history, world geography, Haitian history, Haitian geography, religion, civic instruction, introduction to sciences, drawing, and physical education. In rural schools, where instruction is given in Creole, a basic reading, writing, and arithmetic package is offered with the other subjects added depending on availability of personnel. Final examinations passed satisfactorily permit access to the next higher grade.

In public schools, classrooms are overcrowded. A class may hold between 70 and 80 children. The facilities are dilapidated and offer no security, comfort, or hygiene. There is often no water, no electricity, and no recreational space. In rural areas, the situation is even worse since children must walk for one or two hours to go to school. The teachers in those areas function irregularly, being often late or absent, because they face the same hurdles as their pupils. In 1998-1999, some 16.44 percent of all schools were public schools and 83.60 percent were private. It should be understood that private schools have outnumbered public schools consistently since 1975, partly because of the Protestant schools created in the country for humanitarian purposes and partly because of the entrepreneurial schools that have sprung like mushrooms in the past two decades.

There are 6,111 primary schools. The school-age population is estimated at 3,000,000 and only 800,000 can be accommodated, although with difficulty. Therefore, 2,200,000 children are left out. These numbers do not take into account the normal evolution of the school-age population, which every year increases by 150,000 to 200,000 people. Out of 100 children who enter the traditional primary school, 67 will finish the fourth year of the cycle. Of these, 42 will give up school entirely to become functionally illiterate for the rest of their lives. A growing number of children are unable to read or write after four years of schooling. Each year 68 percent of school age children (mostly in rural areas) cannot find a school in which to enroll. More boys than girls are enrolled, but enrollment of girls, which has maintained itself at 46 percent across the board for several years, is growing faster than enrollment of boys.

Secondary Education

The traditional secondary cycle either at the secondary public school or at a private college provides six years of study in a track that features the classics or one that emphasizes the sciences with several subject combinations possible. Subjects available in secondary school are French grammar, French literature, Haitian literature, English, Spanish, Latin, Greek, algebra, geometry, human biology, chemistry, physics, zoology, botany, world history, Haitian history, world geography, and Haitian geography. An additional year after the first part of the baccalauréat gives instruction in philosophy. This seventh year of study ends with part two of the baccalauréat.

The lycées and collèges of the provinces are as good as those in the capital city, but there are too few secondary schools. In 1998-1999, only 635 institutions, both public and private, all located in urban areas, were open around the country. Of these, 107 were public, and the other 528 were private. To be sure, the needs are not as pressing as they are on the primary level. Out of 100 children who began primary school, only 25 went to secondary school. Less than three reached the year before the baccalauréat. Only one (out of 100) ever achieved the second part of the baccalauréat. With all levels, classes, and types of schools taken into account, the chance of survival in the Haitian system of education is a little less than 1 percent. Other alarming statistics put the number of graduates at 26 out of 1,000 and the attrition rate at 87.5 percent.

It is interesting to observe that whatever the rate of success at the baccalauréat, some schools (private, parochial) always register between 80 and 95 percent success with their candidates. Of these, more than 50 percent are girls. The reason for this success is clear: the system was designed by and for these schools. In addition, they have the resources, the faculty, and the virtues necessary to lead their students to success.

Higher Education

The university system is composed currently of four or five private institutions in addition to the State University of Haiti, which admits 2,000 students every year out of 13,000 to 16,000 applicants. The others receive 3,600 applications a year even though they can only take 1,780 students. The private universities have an attrition rate between 25 and 80 percent. All the institutions are located in the capital city. They offer a degree in law, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, engineering, agriculture and veterinary sciences, education, social sciences (mainly ethnology and psychology), economics, business administration, linguistics, international studies, and African studies.

At this level, also, relevancy remains a concern. The formation given to young scholars in Haiti seems to prepare them better to live and work in foreign countries than in their own. The content of the curriculum is not defined according to the needs of the nation. In general, the higher education system shows all the faults of the other levels: centralization, French orientation (a conscious effort is made to establish equivalency with the University of Paris for degrees granted by the University of Haiti), elitism, and insufficiency.

Teaching Profession

Teachers are trained mainly at the école normale supérieure of the State University of Haiti where they enroll in a three-year program that includes a concentration on the subject or subjects of their choice and training in teaching strategies. There are at least six teachers colleges around the country. A large number of teachers in the Haitian school system make less than 500 gourdes a month. (The exchange rate is approximately 20 gourdes per US$1.) Another unfortunate fact is that 90 percent of them are not prepared for their task. Teaching is not a very attractive profession in Haiti because it is by all accounts the least appreciated of occupations; those who choose it anyway do so very often because of necessity. Attrition among teachers is extremely high. Yet, teacher colleges are still too few, and their instruction is not uniform. There are no research centers. Testing and assessment instruments are not designed to be of any real help to the system.

Summary

For 200 years, the Haitian system of education has been a failure because it neglected the people it was intended to serve. Instead, it favored an influential minority who identified more with France than with Haiti; it was used as an instrument by politicians and the ruling class to maintain power and privileges at the expense of monolingual Creole speakers. In colonial times, Haitians were stripped of their African identity and were taught in the most violent way to define themselves as sub-products of French culture and society.

Even after independence, the only model Haitians had to start building their new nation was the French model. Even though the majority could hardly speak French, and even though Dessalines and Toussaint Louverture addressed their troops in Creole, the only language Haitians had when talking to the world or negotiating formal situations was French. Creole had not gained the status it enjoys today; those who spoke it were not inclined to use it any other way but informally. Furthermore, Creole had become an object of degradation in the eyes of most Haitians. Later in history, French became an instrument of oppression sustained by the educational system. Citizens had no choice but to play the game. Families that wanted their children to succeed in life sent them to school so they could learn French and other subjects in French, but the children failed because to succeed in the schools they had to be fluent in French. Since most of them spoke no other language than Creole, the system of education sacrificed thousands of them for two centuries.

The tragedy of the Haitian system of education is due for the most part to the linguistic dichotomy that characterizes Haiti. Because the declarations of principles to compulsory education failed to address the language issue, they amount to no more than an exercise in futility. Not until the 1980s were solid measures initiated and supported by the government. In fact, a whole reform was launched in education at that point. It featured education in Creole, a more effective rural school system, a more effective basic education system, better teacher training, a literacy program, the creation of an inspection and supervision agency, rational timetables, and experimentation to test the new ideas. Although the world of education was elated to hear the announcement of these long-overdue reforms in 2001, one still does not see any real change. The Livre ouvert sur le développement endogène d'Haïti, a collective work of analysis that tries to tackle the country's problems for ordinary citizens, mentions, among other disappointing statistics in education, the continuing high attrition rate, the extremely high rate of failure in the baccalauréat, and the extremely high illiteracy rate.

Bibliography

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