A Quest for Haiti: Reflections on a Year in Haiti: Down By the Schoolyard

One of the projects that Beth took on in the school was organizing the principal's office. She helped him go through the cupboards and sort through his papers as well as the papers he inherited from the old principal. While she was doing all this organizing, she decided that since the rest of the office was going to look fresh and new, it might be nice to repaint the office. So, that's what we did. The principal wanted to change the walls from a dark green-ish teal color to cream.

The process itself was quite an adventure. For one thing, we did most of the work while school was in session and we always had kids trying to come in the office, crowding around us when we were cleaning the brushes, or finding ways to get paint all over their arms despite our washed brushes and paint trays. It took three trips to the paint store before we finally had enough paint for all the necessary coats. We had gotten two gallons of cream paint and when we opened them, we discovered that they were actually two different shades of yellow, so instead of the nice cream the principal wanted, he now has a buttery-yellow office. The rollers that we had weren't very good either and kept breaking. We ended up breaking all three of the rollers we had over the course of our work. We used our hands as rollers and I even put my very basic engineering skills to the test to fix one of the rollers so we had at least one with a handle.

It was a fun week, and the office looks much brighter than before. Before, it was dark and and it was pretty dirty. Now, after scrubbing the walls, sweeping all the rat poop out and 4 new coats of paint, it is light, clean and much more welcoming.

It has been very interesting working at the school. I have been able to learn a lot about the education system here in Haiti. Here are some of the things that I have learned.

Just like in the US, there are both public, parochial and private schools here in Haiti. It seems however, that the majority of schools are parochial or private. There are dozens of schools here in Gros Morne and only a handful of them are public. In the country as a whole, over 80% of primary schools are privately managed by churches, NGOs, and other organizations (data from USAID). Public schools are not completely free, because students are required to buy books, uniforms, and pay for exams or other fees. Students in parochial schools must pay some of these costs as well as additional tuition fees. School here costs between $50 and $300 depending on the school and whether or not it is an elementary or high school. It should be noted that the average GDP per capita (average income) is only $820 a year. In fact, according to USAID, school expenses can take up around 40% of a family's income.

Sr. Pat has been dealing with two current issues within the education system. Over the past few years, the government started subsidizing the 1st grade in all schools, not just ones run by the government. The next year it expanded to the 1st and 2nd grades, and the following year it included the 3rd grade. Schools were under the impression that the 4th grade would be added this year, so schools told parents that tuition costs would be less for children in those grades. However, in late August, schools found out that only the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades were going to be subsidized, which caused problems for parents who were thinking they would not have to come up with money for tuition but now did. Because these grades are subsidized by the government, it means that the government should be supplying books for all students in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade. It's November, and many schools have not yet received the funds to supply their students with the necessary books, so kids are without the necessary materials. In fact, I believe there are still funds from last year that have not been provided to schools yet.

The second problem has to do with school lunches. Schools are required to feed their students and many schools received aid from the World Food Program to supply food for their students. This year, however, private schools found out, (again, in late August), that they would not be able to receive assistance from the WFP. It turns out that the government told the WFP that they could not support private and parochial schools, only government schools. Because the WFP is an international organization, it must respect the requests of the national government - thus, many schools are struggling to provide their students with food every day. Sr. Pat and a group of school principals and local leaders are working to change this government mandate.

I have also noticed that there are many children who do not go to school. When walking around Gros Morne during the day, (while school is in session), it is not uncommon to see some kids collecting water, helping their mother sell things on the side of the street, or just walking around. Although some of these kids attend the afternoon session some schools have, (because there isn't enough space for all the students to go at one time), some are just not enrolled in school. The common reason for this is that they cannot afford the costs associated with education. I did a little research, and it seems that around 77% of primary school-aged children actually attend primary school and that only 85% of these children complete their entire primary school education (statistics taken from UNICEF).

Ok, that's enough statistics for now. I'll keep other information for another post. Enjoy the pictures!