Life
Haiti recovery update: Free Public Education
Johny Dorvilus is heading back to school in Haiti after winter break.
Johny doesn’t have a text-book, or anything to write with. Sometimes he wonders whether his teacher will turn up for class. Had Johny’s mother been able to afford school fees when he was a toddler, he’d have started his studies at age three; today, the 12-year-old Dos Palais student would be entering junior high. Instead, he returns to tower over his Grade 1 class.
Still, he tells us he’s full of hope.
Half of Haiti’s schools were destroyed or incapacitated in the earthquake that shattered the country on January 12, 2010. The only reason Johny can attend school at all is because of President Michel Martelly‘s controversial plan for free education, launched last September.
Shortly after taking office in May 2011, Martelly announced his plan. Public school is free for those who can travel to the participating partner schools, which are being slowly rolled-out regionally, based on need. Priority was given to areas void of any public schools, starting in the Greater South, then through the Central Plateau, and across the country. By 2015, all 1.5 million school-aged children in Haiti are to be in school.
