Overview:
While some regions in Haiti, particularly Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas, have faced severe disruptions in education due to gang violence and other crises, all 10 communes of the northwest regions have completed the academic year without major interruptions.
PORT-DE-PAIX—The 2023-2024 academic year practically ended in all regions of the Northwest Department on June 16, according to the school calendar established by the Ministry of National Education and Professional Training (MENFP). The completion of the school year without interruptions in any of the department’s school districts, despite Haiti being plagued by crises, has relieved students, parents, teachers and all others involved in the education system in the region.
In the northwest school districts, students completed all 191 calendar days of classes set by the MENFP, with only students who will take their official exams at the end of July or the beginning of August still studying.
The reality in the northwest is in sharp contrast to the one in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and some other parts of the country, where schools are still trying to make up for lost periods or simply closed or even repurposed as shelters due to gang terror, preventing at least 500,000 children from obtaining an education, according to a UNICEF report.
“Unlike in the Haitian capital and its other areas controlled by armed gangs, in our department, the school calendar was nearly respected 100%,” Ministry of Education’s departmental director Max Eddy Augustin told The Haitian Times.
“We had worked throughout the academic year without recording any major irregularities,” he rejoiced. “The insecurity which has been ravaging the West department and certain areas of the Artibonite department had no consequences on our functioning here.”
Departmental education inspector Dieucène Gène echoed Augustin’s assessment with a sentiment of great satisfaction. “The school year went well here in the northwest,” he said. “We did not record too many cases of irregularities throughout the school year. I remember that there were only three days of classes where bad weather prevented us from functioning. We did not suffer any act of banditry either. We had a great school year.”
Teachers, students, and parents are also satisfied
Besides the official exams scheduled for July and August, education participants such as teachers, parents, and students have all expressed their delight at how the school year ended. All districts included, from primary to secondary education, the Northwest department has a total of 1,127 registered schools divided into 270 public and 857 private institutions.
All these schools completed the calendar year without significant hurdles. “We followed the school year from September to June, except for two or three days without classes because of bad weather. And we lost one additional day due to a political protest in the city against now-former Prime Minister Ariel Henry,” said Johnathan Célima, dean at Collège Adventiste de Port-de-Paix.
“I am very happy with how the school year ended for my children,” said Charleine Antoine, a resident of Lacoma—a communal section of Jean-Rabel, about 27 miles west of Port-de-Paix, the department’s capital city.
“I had experienced financial hardship the whole year,” the mother of three told The Haitian Times. “I had to work under the scorching sun in road construction to pay my children’s tuition fees and meet their daily needs. I can joyfully say that I will be relieved for about three months before school restarts.”
For Linsky François, an 8th-grade student at the Christian school Collège Les Saints-Innocents, not missing a day in the school academic year is a blessing, considering how critical the situation has been for so many children in the country.
“Unlike in the Haitian capital and its other areas controlled by armed gangs, in our department, the school calendar was nearly respected 100%.”
Max Eddy Augustin, Departmental Director of the Ministry of National Education and Professional Training (MENFP)
“I am very happy to have arrived at the end of the year,” he said, believing he is promoted to 9th grade. “I will enjoy my summer vacation. If I were in Port-au-Prince, I wouldn’t finish this school year yet because of the gang violence.”
“The majority of teachers who work here collaborated well with management so that we could save the academic year,” complimented Jean Ernest Joseph, director of the Lycée Tertulien Guilbaud, a 92-year-old public school in Port-de-Paix—the oldest and first high school in northwestern Haiti.
Joseph praised everyone in the education sector for working tirelessly during the school year and not letting the unfortunate situation in the Haitian capital distract them. “I am also happy that we were able to welcome many students displaced by gang violence,” Joseph added.
According to a recent report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the northwest has been among the provinces hosting a portion of the nearly 580,000 people displaced by rampant gang violence. Many displaced individuals arriving in the region were students who could not find a place within the department’s public school system, representing only 23% of the total number of schools. They had to integrate into the more dense private school system. Some were fortunate to receive scholarships.
Collège Les Saints-Innocents is one of the institutions that awarded several scholarships to displaced students.
“Each year, we provide 150 scholarships to students based on either academic merit or needs,” explained Father Wilky Avril, the school administrator. “This year, we decided to prioritize direct victims of insecurity and sociopolitical instability.”
