Topic: Education
Primary Authors:Leslee Sholomskas and katerina Hackett
CURRENT SITUATION:
Although public education is free in Haiti, the cost is still quite high for Haitian families who must pay for uniforms, textbooks, supplies, and other inputs. Due to weak state provision of education services, private and parochial schools account for about 90% of primary schools, and only 65% of primary school-aged children are actually enrolled. At the secondary level, the figure drops to around 20%. Less than 35% of those who enter will complete primary school. Although Haitians place a high value on education, few can afford to send their children to secondary school. Today, primary school enrollment is also dropping due to economic factors. 60 percent of rural households suffer from chronic food insecurity, and food must come before education.
With an adult illiteracy rate of 52% (48% of males are illiterate and 52.2% of females are illiterate), education remains a key obstacle to economic and social advancement in Haiti.
Issues to be Discussed:
-Illiteracy
-School is unavailable to all people
-People cannot afford to send thier children to school
Calls upon the U.N. to:
-Create 1000 New Schools
-The Current Youth Population:
- Ages 0-14
- Male-1,770,523 and Female 1,749,853
-This would create a total of 3,520,376 students
-With 1000 new schools we would have about 3500 kids to a school
K-8
-Approximately 380 children will be in each grade per school
-Class sizes will be about 50 kids per class with a teacher to child ratio of 25:1
-This will account for 8 classes per grade
-Provide a free school uniform to every child
-The cost of a standard school uniform wardrobe for a school age child can be as low as $50 for a single school year.
-the following items will be included:
- 4 tops: Short- and long-sleeved knit or woven shirts
- 4 bottoms: Shorts, skirts, pants
- 2 sweaters
- 4 pairs of socks/tights
- 2 pairs of shoes
-Provide a free lunch to every child
-The average school lunch costs about 1.92 to prepare and serve, including the value of donated commodities in the meal.
Curriculum:
-The focus is on fixing the illiteracy rate
Classes that will be offered:
Reading (this includes reading in the Creole language as well as in English and French)
Writing (this includes writing in the Creole language as well as English and French)
Math (basic math -> algebra and analysis)
Science
Trade Skills (agriculture, construction, technology, etc.)
“Moral class” (this includes learning about values, rules, and health including sex education)
Adult Class: reading/writing and “moral class”
Offered at night at the community centers
Free to the public, all are encouraged to attend
Food will be an incentive for people to attend
Supplies Needed:
-Pencils
-Paper
-Chalk Boards
-Chalk
-Desks Chairs
-Teachers desk
-Pens
-Colored Pencils
(This can be funded by charities like Voices for Haiti and Hope for Haiti and other outreach programs)
Technology Aspects Needed:
-Computer lab in the schools
-Along with a computer in each classroom
-Loud Speaker system in schools
-Calculators
-Overheads
(Again as much as possible will be provided by charities, what can not be received from charity will be bought as bargains)
Transportation:
-Considering there are currently dirt roads, buses are not an option
-Most children will walk to school
-Bike to school
-Or use the surrey system
Establish time school will be in session:
-School will be cession from 8:00 until 2:00
-This will allow children to help their parents both before and after school and still allow time for homework
-Each class will be approximately 50 minutes
-This will allow for a half hour lunch break and five minutes between each class
Establish a new School system:
-There will be a K-8 school
-And a 9-12 high school
-Colleges will be established after the primary and high schools have been built
Establish School Districts:
There will be 10 school districts depending on which province people live in
1-Artibonite
2-Centre
3-Gand’Anse
4-Nippes
5-Nord
6-Nord-Est
7-Nord-Ouest
8-Ouest
9-Sud-Est
10-Sud
This will provide for a total of 50 new high schools to be built and 50 primary schools to be built within each province
This will have a total of 1000 schools
The schools will be located as close to center of each province as the land will permit, barring mountains and what not
There will be a school located in each provinces capital (Ganaive, Hinche, Jeremie, Miragoane, Cap-Haitien, Fort-liberte, Port-de-Paix, Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Les Cayes)
Schools will also be built in the most populated areas
Staff:
-Currently to become a teacher in Haiti they must graduate from either the traditional primary or reform fundamental cycle and take a competitive entrance exam to entry into an Ecole Normale for a three-year course culminating in the Diplome d’Institutor. They then take a one-year teacher training course.
-We propose that to begin with, we will get teachers from missionaries as volunteers trained in certain sectors of the curriculum.
-As the education system is nourished, children brought up in the new Haitian school system that graduate from high school can go on to first work as teachers assistants along side of the missionary teachers
-Once these assistants sufficiently take an exam proving their knowledge of being able to teach a certain class, they may then be certified as a teacher
-As colleges are established, programs to become a teacher will be established also
Safety:
-one security officer per x amount of students (we propose every 50-100 students)
-organization where threats can be reported (comparable to CARES)
-counseling officers to assist in working out altercations verbally
-hall monitors
-fire alarms
-sprinkler system
-fire exits
-emergency evacuation plan (drills will be run regularly)
-create safe place incase of natural disaster (the cafeteria will be windowless to protect against hurricanes)
-Have two nurses on staff at all times (volunteers from missionaries)
Code of Conduct:
-Treat others as you would like to be treated. Always treat students, proprty, teachers, and staff with respect
-Any student who directs profane, vulgar, or abusive language at a student, teacher, or staff member will be issued a warning. Repeat offenses will result in another warning. Repeat offenders will have an increase in consequences. Harassment in school, verbal or physical, is forbidden.
-Students must comply with the uniform policy. Casual clothes are not permitted at any time on school campuses
-Violence will not be permitted under any circumstances on school property or any school activity. Any student who assaults a teacher, fellow student, or staff member will deal with the repercussions
-The use or possession of any type of weapon in school is strictly prohibited
-Selling, recieving,or using a controlled or illegal substance is forbidden in school
New job openings schools will provide:
-Custodial help
-Cafeteria help
-Nurses
-Teachers
-Aids
Initial Budget
-It costs about $10,200 per student to build a public school, this cost multiplied by 3,500 equals about 35,700,000 per school.
-We propose that we set a budget of 500 million dollars towards building schools and then after that sum has been consumed, evaluate how efficient the schools are to help take into consideration how much money we should spend on building the next set of schools.
-We will ask for donations for the school supplies (like backpacks, pencils, paper, crayons, etc.)
-Teachers and administration will be initially coming from missionaries on a volunteer basis, as the supply of teachers is depleted we will set a standard wage as the problem arises.
-Technology aspects such as computers, calculators, etc. we propose an initial budget of 50 million dollars (Let it be assumed that the price of these commodities would be lowered from normal rate considering the bulk amount we would be buying from a company)
-School lunches will be supplied to each child for free given the economic situation the country is in. It costs approximately 2 dollars to feed a child this would cost about 7,000 dollars to feed a school of children a day. Given a 180 day school year, it would cost about 1,260,000,000 to feed the children of Haiti each year. (this will be paid for by the social section of Haiti)
-Uniforms cost about 50 dollars per child. This would cost approximately 175,000,000 to cloth each child for a year.
-This initial sum being asked of the U.N. as of now is 725,000,000 dollars.
-The money for Haitian education will come from UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). As of the millennium, UNESCO’s top goal was to achieve universal primary education in all countries by 2015. This being so, the educational developments will be overseen by this organization.
