 |
 |
 |
|
November 2014
|
Ladies and Gentlemen I am extremely honoured to be among you this afternoon. Here I am at this University of regional fame that has trained so many leaders of our sub region to tell you about my vision of education, which as you know, is a factor of human development and necessary for the progress of our country. As soon as I was sworn in on May of 2011, education became one of the priorities of my administration. During the past three years, with the political will, the vision and the dynamism of my governmental team, Haiti has resolutely launched universal schooling. Parents whose children benefit from the universal schooling programme, free and compulsory, no longer have to pay school fees for their children. The Haitian Government assumes the cost through its public treasury.
Universal schooling is a major asset made available to the population to increase its freedom of action and, through its objectives, is a mechanism that enables the State to play its role of supporting the people whose lack of education is part of the weakening of public powers and pushes to adhere to republican values. Universal schooling also helps the State to affirm its authority by training the population to express a modern and real democratic discourse. By allowing children so far excluded from the educational system, to acquire basic skills and receive a serious education, they will become better integrated adults in the chain of production of goods and services. Educated citizens are better integrated on the job market and better able to negotiate their employment contracts. They are also better socially integrated. So, providing universal schooling is making sure these children, when they become adults, have an opening on the future, better working conditions, higher salaries, better contracts, and altogether, better living conditions. Educated citizens are more productive and more apt to take part in economic and social activities. Ladies and gentlemen, I am convinced that the progress of countries must necessarily involve the implementation of a school system capable of training the citizens they need for their economic and social development. During the past few years, my government has deployed efforts to achieve this. New public schools have been constructed or repaired and today, the net rate of schooling is of approximately 88%. Given that 5% of the country’s GDP is devoted to education on a yearly basis, Haiti’s wish is to catch up with the region’s countries, in view of the delays it has accumulated on the issue of education.
My administration has developed three draft laws to drive higher education by reviewing our strategies on the issue that date back 54 years offering our youth the opportunity to complete high level studies on the home front. Other than public institutions, I firmly believe that the State has a moral and strategic obligation to support private institutions of higher education, because, by financing such institutions the State is in fact financing the training of its citizens. Increasing the availability of higher education is a must to contain the flow of Haitian students forced to travel abroad for their college education. With the reform of higher education, private institutions and non-profit research centres may receive financial support from the State according to their needs and their level of academic excellence. The establishment of the National Agency for Higher Education and Scientific Research will enable the State to coordinate its efforts and means to modernise higher education. Ladies and gentlemen, education is our priority, we have mobilised the means necessary and we are happy to report that the results are becoming obvious. Education is a public right and our governments have the obligation to increase their quality for the well-being of our people. Thank you for your attention.
|
The educational policy which I have launched meets the pressing need to endow all of Haiti’s children with capital required for their growth and their full social and cultural integration. They will become full-fledged citizens and will be easily capable of taking their responsibilities as citizens. By providing schooling for all children with the financial support of the National Education Fund which I have created, my administration seeks to repair wrongs and promote social justice. 
Our educational system has not been the subject of such major legislative reform for the past 54 years and my wish was to implement this reform for the sustainability of the public policies that I have undertaken for the sector.