Haiti

Independence completely changed the political outlook of the new republic. At last, Haitians were in power and had the opportunity to build a nation that responded to the needs and aspirations of its citizens. As expected, public instruction was at the top of the new government's priority list. It is interesting to note how consistently thereafter presidents and legislators have attended to this important issue. Indeed, if the short-lived imperial constitution of Jean-Jacques Dessalines reflected no real passion for the subject, all other charts drafted subsequently made education a pressing matter in the country's administrative programs. The reason for this sustained interest is, of course, the realization that progress depends on education.

These decrees, for all their good intentions, never resulted in a real system of education over a period of two hundred years. Several reasons account for this state of affairs:

• political instability
• lack of financial resources
• absence of a pragmatic mentality seeking to identify the public to be served
• a failure to match resources with needs
• discord over the details of an appropriate educational system

To exacerbate these evils, mass education continued to be an object of suspicion, as one dictatorial régime after another felt the need to protect itself against an ignorant populace that, if literate, would be more effective and dangerous. Throughout the nineteenth century and until the 1980s, decrees on education took the character of simple formalities that no one cared to implement or they were drafted without interest in the peasant, Creole-speaking majority of the Haitian population.

Henry Christophe, the King of Haiti, made a serious attempt to organize public instruction, as attested by his constitutional act of February 17, 1807. The single most important item of the act is the mandate to create a central school in every arrondissement. The importance of this mandate lies in the fact that it was a proclamation of freedom to teach, and it invited competent individuals to open schools. But the difficulty with this act was that the country lacked competent teachers who could either create the schools or teach in them. Christophe opened an Academy in Cap-Haitien with the help of Haitian and foreign teachers, but it was for the families of public employees.

More interesting was Pétion's Constitution of 1816, which stipulated the universal right to a free education and ordered each commune to open free public institutions to the school age population; this constitution was the most durable that Haiti ever had. It lasted until 1843 and, with a slight modification in 1846, it was still in force in 1867. If one considers that the constitution of Haiti was rewritten at least 20 times in the past 200 years (1801-2001), Pétion's constitution shows an incredible endurance that guaranteed a period of stability and growth for Haitian institutions. It is in this 50-year period that public instruction had the best chance to evolve. With the help of Haitian and foreign educators, Pétion himself had founded a lycée in Port-au-Prince as well as a pensionnat (boarding school) for girls.

Compulsory education was decreed in July 1852 and again in the constitution of 1874. But at those times, neither the empire of Faustin Soulouque nor the short-lived government of Michel Domingue was able to provide the resources necessary to implement such an ambitious plan. Again, these documents fell in the category of abstractions that served no purpose.

Another important document is the Concordat of March 28, 1860, signed by President Geffrard with Pope Pius IX. It involved an agreement with the Vatican to send Catholic educators to Haiti to help with the establishment of parochial schools. Basically, what it entailed was the promotion of the Catholic Church and the education of young men and women who would devote themselves to religious life. This agreement resulted in the establishment of a seminary in Port-au-Prince. Other schools followed and soon there were private Catholic schools in all departments and major cities of Haiti. The Fathers of the Holy Spirit and the Christian Brothers were the first to participate in this missionary endeavor.

The Concordat could only go so far to help Haitian children. To be sure, a small number were selected for a general education, whether or not they had a predilection for clerical life. Others were turned away. The private Catholic schools would compete with free public institutions, since parents would be inclined to send their children to the more exclusive schools. Finally, the European could not give young Haitians an education rooted in the reality of their land. The consequence was a widening of the gap between the masses and the educated elite.

Nevertheless, the 1860s witnessed an unprecedented growth in Haitian education. President Geffrard organized the Medical School, founded a School of Music and a Law School. He sent several teacher trainees to Europe to remedy the shortage of teachers. He founded or reorganized several lycées around the country, especially in Jacmel and Gonaïves. He created special secondary schools for both genders. By 1872, a remarkable intellectual elite was ready to assume the leadership of the nation. Boards of education were formed as well as a Corps of Public Instruction Inspectors. Primary schools multiplied in the cities and in the countryside.

All these accomplishments were due to a period of economic prosperity in Haiti. The United States, engaged in a war at home (1861-1865), needed cotton and other products, so they bought products for a good price from Haiti. Still, the educational system provided little that could be considered relevant to the masses of Haitians. Vocational schools were not considered necessary at the time, even though it would be helpful in promoting light industry.

The 1880s brought several educational achievements that were decreed and successfully realized. President Salomon reorganized the lycées, invited a group of French professors to join the teaching faculty, and opened a sizable number of rural schools for the first time. These schools were so successful that plans were made to promote them further around the country, but the government of Salomon was overthrown.

Apart from the foundation of the State University of Haiti in 1960, no major developments took place either in new constitutions that followed Salomon's government or in occasional decrees. It is now clear that, with regard to education, new governments have only built on their predecessors' accomplishments. Fortunately for the Haitian people, public instruction is the only area where subsequent versions of the constitution have not defeated one another.

The constitution of 1983 brought a fresh set of ideas to the public. For years, there had been a public outcry for relevancy in Haitian education. Since the 1940s, advocates for education in Creole (as the only way out of the linguistic dilemma that plagued Haiti) launched one campaign after another. In the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. lending institutions eager to see change in Haiti posed certain conditions to the government before they made more money available.

In August 1979, a conference in Port-au-Prince was convened to debate the issue of Haiti's elitist, French system of education, which excluded 90 percent of its population. The question before the conference was whether to relegate French to the background and multiply literacy programs in Creole. In addition, the issue of vocational schools was considered by the conference. Then-minister of education Joseph C. Bernard informed the delegates that the government had approved Creole as a language of instruction. Soon thereafter, a law signed by the head of state formally approved of Creole as a vehicle of communication in the classroom and as a subject matter. Then, with the financial support of the World Bank, the president authorized four years of experimentation to test the idea. This process involved 1,000 children studying all subjects in Creole for the first four years of primary school. French was also offered as an ordinary subject, the first two years being scheduled for the speaking skill in French, while the third and fourth years were reserved for reading and writing. Finally, in the fifth year, the pupils received instruction in French. The program was an absolute success until members of the ruling class, fearing that they would lose privileges associated with proficiency in French, demanded that the program be discontinued. The president, eager to maintain his political base among the ruling class, fired the minister and canceled the Creole program in July 1982. Yet, the new constitution of 1983 made French and Creole national languages even though French remained the official language of administration, law, and education.