The crisis of school education and the phenomenon of insecurity in Haiti
- The author reports that out of 196 school days planned for 2020-2021, pupils barely completed half of them because of demonstrations and disruption.
- Gangs impose ransoms on school heads and threaten to disable schools that refuse, and pupils have been shot in the street and in a classroom.
- Based on MENFP figures cited in the article, 25 percent of children at the basic level attend public school, with a planning target of 90 percent by 2030.
- Citing press reports on the revised 2020-2021 budget, the article states that the MENFP investment budget was 4,232,709,854 gourdes, or 9.4 percent of the investment budget.
- The author argues that the State has little control over the supply of or demand for education and that public education policy lacks transparency.
- The article adds a third crisis to Laval's two crises of education, a crisis of trust between education actors and the State.
This article, published on the website of the review Le Scientifique on June 11, 2022, examines the state of schooling in Haiti in a time of crisis. It separates violence, which refers to acts, from insecurity, which is the feeling that results from them, and describes how gang activity, kidnappings for ransom, displacement, the earthquakes of 2010 and 2021, COVID-19 and demonstrations disrupt the school year. It also discusses unmet basic needs of schoolchildren and the poor state of public transport and traffic. The author draws on Edgar Morin's theory of crisis, Hannah Arendt's view of the crisis of authority in education and Christian Laval's two crises of schooling, and adds a third crisis of trust between education actors and the State.
The method is socio-dialectical and rests on a sociological reading of norms and public policy. Using figures from the Ministry of Education (MENFP) and press reports on the 2020-2021 revised budget, it argues that investment in education is very low and that the State has little control over public or private schools. The conclusion calls for a national effort, security measures coordinated with the political, educational and judicial systems, and an end to what the author calls tolerance of gangs.
How to cite
Le Scientifique, 2022, The crisis of school education and the phenomenon of insecurity in Haiti, https://lescientifique.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/wp-1654956665664.pdf
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- Le Scientifique