Improving Education Financing: Use and Usefulness of School Grants, Haiti

The brief reports research conducted by the State University of Haiti with the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training, coordinated by IIEP-UNESCO with support from the Global Partnership for Education. Fieldwork ran from November 2015 to February 2016 in 15 public and non-public primary schools in three school districts of the Ouest department.

The grants come from PSUGO, started in October 2011, which pays fees in 9,000 non-public and 2,500 public schools to guarantee access for about 1.5 million children aged 6 to 12 in 2016. The grant is USD 4 (250 gourdes) per pupil in public schools and USD 69 (4,500 gourdes) per pupil in non-public schools, where it also covers the salaries of teachers who are not civil servants. School actors could not confirm an effect on access from statistics but reported more children in school, while non-public schools reported long payment delays and some teachers left their posts. The brief also reports that an anti-corruption inquiry into 208 schools led the ministry to remove 85 schools from the PSUGO list, and recommends extending the grants to all public schools, a payment calendar, clear guidelines and stronger controls.