Rebuilding Haiti's Schools

Hurricane Katrina was one of America's worst natural disasters; 1,464 people lost their lives.  Compare this number, tragic as it may be, to the earthquake in Haiti. Last January, 230,000 people died, and 1 million more were left homeless.  Haiti, already one of the world's poorest countries, lost nearly all infrastructure, and was set back years in economic and social development.  One of the areas of Haitian society deeply affected was its educational system.

To rebuild the country, an international body called the Haiti Recovery Commission (HRC) was formed. Last August the NY Times featured an article on HRC's projects to rebuild its educational system.  Realizing that rebuilding the Haitian school system is key to unlocking Haiti's potential, ambitious goals were set to provide tuition-free schooling to all Haitian children. Considering 90% of schools in Haiti are now privately run, mostly by churches and NGOs, this goal was bold to say the least. The man selected for the job was Paul Vallas, who brought reform to the Chicago public school system and post-Katrina New Orleans. The plan is to build 625 primary schools and retrain nearly 50,000 teachers.

That was in August. Today, Haiti is once again suffering. Recent elections have caused an uproar. Rene Preval is thought to have rigged the election, and only days ago hundreds of Haitians protested in Port-au-Prince to have Preval ousted.  In a fight for power, economic and social development have come to a temporary halt.  Sweeping plans to change the school system through government and NGO involvement may are freezing over on the tropical island.

I sincerely hope plans for change Haiti's public school system are a success. But my better intuition tells me that solutions will have to come from the private sector, awash with every non-profit and NGO under the sun.  Schools, however, hold out great hope. And schools with a Christian foundation have the potential to impact not only the social sphere, but the spiritual as well.

But will private schools fare any better than the public?  In a land of 80% unemployment, where will parents find even the most basic of funds to send their children to school?  This, it is thought, depends on the quantity of aid from overseas. Yet some of the best thinkers from the developing world have shown that long-term aid can help in emergencies, but cannot ultimately solve the problem of economic development. Trade, not aid, is the key.  Sustainable solutions are needed to rebuild Haiti's schools.  But where will they come from?  Tuition is unaffordable, people are without jobs, education is many times seen as just a way to get money from the US, and unending donations tend to fight against, rather than support, long term solutions.

What is needed is a creative model of school that can bring excellent education which is affordable and is self-sustainable.  This is the challenge...and the topic of my next post.