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3.2.1. The general context

The history of Haiti has been characterised by poverty and political instability since the colonial times. Its society has always been deeply conflicting, on the basis of class, colour, religious, linguistic, and local cleavages. The critical situation in which the Haitian society found itself at the beginning of the 2000s can be fairly considered to be ―a product of both centuries of inhumane exploitation on the part of outside countries, and decades of domestic

authoritarianism and oppression‖ (Vallas & Pankovits, 2010: p.6). Throughout its 200-years old history, the country has experienced 32 coups, and in 2010 seven out of ten Haitians were living on less than US $2 per day (Ibid.). It has been argued (Gros, 2011) that this extreme poverty was caused by the imposition of western economy with the pressure for policy reforms, first of all trade liberalisation (before, Haiti had a policy that protected its local producers by imposing taxes on imports, which represented an important source of income for the state). As a consequence of the following destruction of local industries, and the imposition of an international embargo as a reaction to the coup d‘état of 1991-1994, Haiti experienced a dramatic decline of economic and social conditions: state institutions were totally inefficient, and the government was unable to provide any of the basic services (Ibid.). Moreover, the inefficiency of the state‘s institutions was also a result of the corruption of Haitian rulers, that used to hold national resources for themselves (80% was consumed to pay ministries‘ salaries), instead of using them for security, justice, education, health care, clean water, roads, sanitation (Ibid.).

In 1995, after the military regime that ruled the country for three years was overthrown, the UN Commission on Human Rights requested the appointment of an independent expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti. According to Resolution 1995/70, the independent expert was mandated ―to furnish assistance to the Government of Haiti in the area of human rights, to examine the development of the situation of human rights in Haiti and to monitor the fulfilment by Haiti of its obligations in this field‖ (para.10). In 2004, after several weeks of conflicts, another coup d‘état occurred. The UN Security Council determined that the situation in Haiti constituted a threat to international peace and security in the region, and established the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), deployed in early 2005. Resolution 1542/2004 gave MINUSTAH the mandate to assist the Haitian state in the domains of security, political process and human rights.

All the above contributes to suggest how difficult it was for Haiti to develop healthy social, economic and political institutions acting in full compliance with

human rights, including the ability to respect, protect and fulfil the right to education for its own population.

3.2.2. The Haitian education sector

Because of its weak institutions, even before the earthquake Haiti was facing a crisis in its education sector, and was struggling to comply with the provisions contained in its Constitution as well as in the international instruments it has ratified. As mentioned above, reforms to the education system were attempted but were unsuccessful because of delays in implementation and a lack of infrastructure. Challenges and problems can be found at the level of each of the 4As.

In terms of availability and accessibility, the main problems were connected to the fact that, due to weak state institutions and the lack of public investment, the private sector had taken the lead in education. As a result, 92% of Haitian schools were privately owned in 2010, many of which charging high rates of tuition (Lattimer & Berther, 2010). The private education system in Haiti had grown by default, or, as Salmi (2000: p.165) writes, ―by despair‖: it was not a deliberate intention of the state, which was too weak to simply enforce its policies in the education sector. Its attitude was one of passive reliance on private schools, which became the norm, while public schools covered less than 10% of the school age population (Ibid.). This situation is quite unique in a global perspective, especially considering that Haiti was (and still is) one of the 20 poorest countries in the world and the only one with more than 50% of children enrolled in private schools (Ibid.). The capacity of public schools was largely insufficient and access to public education was very limited. This is a demonstration of how the different features of the right to education are all interrelated: lack of availability results in lack of accessibility. As a consequence, for the majority of Haitian children private schools were the only option. Private schools were mainly religious schools (two thirds), while schools established by NGOs or local associations, and commercial schools were also growing in number (Ibid.). These schools did not receive any kind of government subsidy, and although they represented a positive

element in Haiti‘s education provision, their widespread presence had important negative consequences.

The main consequences were the prohibitive cost of education for families, inequality in the geographical distribution of schools, social exclusion, poor quality of education. In fact, the Haitian organisation Asanble Vwazen Solino, in its report concerning the right to education in Haiti, submitted to the UN Universal Periodic Review in 2011, reported that also public schools were not free and had numerous ‗hidden‘ costs (for example for school maintenance, uniforms, books, and teacher-salary augmentation: this had the effect of putting even public education out of the reach of many parents). Considering the widespread poverty in the country, education was cost-prohibitive for many families, which may be required to spend up to half of their total income on their children‘s schooling (Asanble Vwazen Solino, 2011). Moreover, the absence of any government scholarship programme to alleviate the burden on poor families caused significant regional and social inequalities (Salmi, 2000). The fact that Haitian schools were not affordable (and therefore not accessible) is one of the major factors that explains why in 2010 only 55% of primary-school-age children attended school, and less than one third of those enrolled reached the fifth grade (Asanble Vwazen Solino, 2011). The lack of economic accessibility to school was especially significant in the rural areas, where only 23% of the school-age population actually had access to any type of formal education (Salmi, 2000). This was also the result of the lack of education opportunities at all in rural areas. Such a situation led to the separation of many families because parents sent their children to urban areas to be educated. In many instances, children were relocated to more affluent families, where a form of modern slavery was taking place: children exchanged domestic labour for the promise of education (and, of course, the most affected by this phenomenon were girls)9 (Asanble Vwazen Solino, 2011).

The problems outlined above also impacted on acceptability and

9

According to www.restavekfreedom.org, this practice affects an estimated 300,000 Haitian children. It is called ‗restavek‘: this term comes from the French language ‗rester avec‘, that means ‗to stay with‘.

adaptability of education. Salmi (2000) reports that, because of the absence of public schools that could be taken as models, and of pedagogical norms established and monitored by the Ministry of Education, the education system in Haiti was working without minimum quality standards. Private schools were generally largely unregulated (three-fourths operating with no certification or license), with the outcome that the education provided was of various quality (Asanble Vwazen Solino, 2011), and in many cases not acceptable. Certainly, they were not complying with human rights standards that require the establishment and respect of minimum standards.

Basically, in Haiti the quality of the education children received depended on how much their families could afford to pay (Salmi, 2000). Public schools were overcrowded, lacked essential educational facilities (libraries, laboratories), and relied on outdated textbooks; but in general, all schools often lacked adequate sanitation facilities (with a strongest impact on girls‘ access to education), textbooks, coordinated development of curriculum and learning materials (Asanble Vwazen Solino, 2011; Salmi, 2000). The quality of instruction was also scarce in most private and public schools because teachers were unqualified and unmotivated: many teachers lacked the necessary training and teaching credentials, especially those working in the private sector, as a consequence of the lower salaries paid by private schools whose income was limited by the negative economic situation (Asanble Vwazen Solino, 2011; Salmi, 2000). Moreover, chronically late wage payments resulted in high teacher absenteeism (Asanble Vwazen Solino, 2011). Another critical issue, connected with both acceptability and adaptability (but also accessibility) of education, was that of language of instruction: French was used at school (as opposed to Creole, the common language of the nation). This strengthened the divide between lower-income students and the elite, because poorer students, for whom French was not the mother tongue, were not put in an equitable condition to learn, so they were unable to excel in courses and fell even more behind. In fact, French was considered the language of the elite, and was only spoken by those that could afford an education: in this way, an education system limited to the upper class

was perpetuated (Vallas & Pankovits, 2010).

Salmi (2000) points out how, even though there are no comprehensive qualitative data on learning achievement, it is clear that the kind of education the Haitian children were provided with was below international standards. Indirect indicators of the poor quality of education are the large amount of over-age students (which reflects low education efficiency), and the fact that less than a half of the population of the country could read and write. Therefore, not only public education did not comply with international requirements, but also private education did not conform to the key minimum standards established by the main international legal instruments. In conclusion, it can be said that before the earthquake of 2010 education in Haiti was far from being available, accessible (and affordable), acceptable and adaptable.