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Haiti Primary Schools
Primary education was compulsory in the late 1980s, but
scarce government funds and a limited number of schools
resulted
in low enrollments in many rural areas. The school year
began in
October and ended in July, with two-week vacations at
Christmas
and Easter. Regular primary education consisted of six
grades,
preceded by two years of kindergarten (enfantin),
which
was heavily attended and which counted statistically in
primary
enrollments. Primary education consisted of preparatory,
elementary, and intermediate cycles, each of which lasted
two
years. Promotion between grades depended on final
examinations
and on class marks recorded in trimesters. At the end of
the
sixth year, students who had passed their final
examinations
received a graduation certificate (certificat d'études
primaires). After receiving the certificate, students
could
take examinations for entry into either secondary school
or
higher-primary school that led to an elementary
certificate
(brevet élémentaire) after three years. It was
therefore
possible for a student to take two years of kindergarten,
six
years of primary school, and three years of higher-primary
studies for a total of eleven primary-school years. This
primaryeducation system, however, was expected to change in the
1980s
because of measures included in the 1978 Education Reform.
Primary-school enrollment was estimated at 642,000 in
1981,
more than twice the official figure for 1970. According to
the
1982 census, 40 percent of children in the six-year-old to
eleven-year-old bracket were enrolled in school, compared
with
only 25 percent in 1971. Primary-school enrollment was 74
percent
in metropolitan Port-au-Prince, but it was only 32 percent
in
rural areas. Most primary-school students were enrolled in
private establishments in 1981, a reversal from the
previous
decade. An increase in the number of private primary
schools
accounted for the switch.
School nutrition programs, which increased about 12
percent
annually between 1976 and 1984, contributed to increased
primaryschool enrollments. By 1986 about three out of four
students
received meals at school. The United States and Europe
supported
the meal programs through surplus commodities. Private
development agencies also provided support. At the same
time, a
number of private agencies, mostly from the United States,
sponsored students in primary schools, helping to pay for
tuition, books, and uniforms. By 1985 at least 75,000
primary
students received such support. One-third of these
students,
however, were in Port-au-Prince. Enrollments of rural
children
continued to be low.
Dropout rates for primary students were high. According
to
some estimates for the mid-1980s, more than half of
Haiti's urban
primary-school students dropped out before completing the
sixyear primary cycle. In rural areas, the dropout rate was
80
percent. In addition, dropout and repetition rates in
rural areas
were so high that three of every five primary-school
students
were in either first or second grade.
There were more than 14,000 primary-school teachers in
Haiti
in the early 1980s; however, only about 40 percent of the
public
primary-school teachers and about 30 percent of those in
private
schools had a secondary-level or teacher training
certificate. In
1979 public school teachers were earning US$100 a
month--the same
salary paid to teachers in 1905, when the profession was
considered prestigious. Private school salaries were about
50
percent lower than those of public school teachers. The
National
Council of Government (Conseil National de
Gouvernement--CNG),
reacting to demonstrations by teachers, agreed to raise
salaries
in 1986. Private school teachers' salaries, however,
remained
low. Because of the low salaries, many teachers left the
profession.
In the 1970s, the Haitian government, with support from
the
World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), began to reform its
educational
system, mostly at the primary level. In 1978 the
government
unified educational administration for the first time by
putting
rural schools under the authority of the Department of
National
Education. Before 1978 rural schools had been administered
by the
Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The
education
reform also introduced a new structure for primary
classes,
established Creole as the language of instruction, and
introduced
new curricula and procedures for teacher certification.
The new
structure consisted of ten years of primary education in
one
four-year and two three-year cycles, followed by three
years of
secondary education. Promotion from first to second grade
and
from third to fourth grade was to be automatic in order to
prevent large numbers of students from repeating grades
and
overloading the system at the lower grades. The new
curriculum
for first through fourth grades included three months of
study
skills and classes in reading, writing, mathematics, and
environmental sciences.
Data as of December 1989
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