Post-Cyclone Matthew Needs Assessment: Education Sector

The education volume of the post-Matthew needs assessment, prepared by the Ministry of National Education with the departmental education directorates and sector partners. It counts institutions and children rather than valuing buildings, which is what makes the schooling consequence visible.

On the ministry's official and partial figures, 916 fundamental schools, the great majority of them public, and 754 secondary establishments including 33 lycees, were affected across 8 of the country's 10 school departments. At least 150,000 children and adolescents risked leaving school for the current academic year, and some 5,000 teachers were affected. In the hardest-hit areas, the Grand Sud departments of Grand'Anse, Nippes and Sud together with the Nord-Ouest, which between them hold about 3,952 fundamental schools, the share of damaged schools could reach 80 percent of the stock, roughly 3,162 schools, putting more than 400,000 children at risk of interrupting their fundamental schooling.

The volume is explicit that this aggravates a pre-existing situation of school exclusion in Haiti rather than creating one, and sets priority needs at 120 million US dollars: rehabilitating damaged schools in four priority departments, supplying materials, establishing temporary structures, and finally reconstructing destroyed schools. The ordering matters, because temporary structures keep children enrolled while reconstruction proceeds.