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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 2ND 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.
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.
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 aremore 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.
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.
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.
OUR REGION
Michel Martelly, President of the Republic of Haiti,
was
recently in
Trinidad and Tobago for the 2014 VIII Americas
Competitiveness Forum
. While here he paid a special visit
to The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine
Campus. In a small but well-attended gathering at the
Main Salon of the Campus Principal’s Office, President
Martelly outlined his vision for rebuilding and improving
Haiti’s education system and discussed the importance
of education for the overall rehabilitation of the
society, which has been devastated by political and
economic turmoil and the destructive effects of the
2010 earthquake.
Here is an excerpt of President
Martelly’s address:
Education is Key to
rebuilding
Haiti
The Haitian President with Deputy Principal of The UWI,
St. Augustine Campus, Professor Rhoda Reddock.
PHOTOS: Aneel Karim
President Martelly speaks with two Haitian students
attending The UWI.
