Crosby Fund for Haitian Education
Fall/Winter ’08-09
Home Contributions Students Directors Scrapbook
Some Information on the Secondary School System in Haiti
Many people ask questions about the secondary school system in Haiti, and so we hope that you will find some answers to your questions.
Are there public schools in Haiti?
Yes, there are, but very few in the Artibonite Valley where we work. Most students go to private schools. Unlike America, where the private schools are considered better educational institutions than public schools, Haitian private schools are not as good as the public schools. The public schools are regulated by the government and generally have better teachers. Public schools are not free, however, there are still fees for tuition, books, exams, and uniforms. The difference is that the tuition in a public school may be $25.00 a year and in a private school as much as $125.00 a year. All other fees (books, uniforms, exams) are the same as private schools. We currently have students in 24 different schools – 3 are public and 21 are private.
What about the curriculum?
All the schools, public and private, use one curriculum for each grade that is established by the Ministry of National Education in Port-au-Prince. The curriculum includes a wide variety of subjects. For example a sophomore in high school takes the following courses: French and Haitian Literature, English and Spanish languages, biology, algebra, and geography. All schools use the same books and workbooks. This makes it easy for students to transfer to different schools. It also makes it easy for our employees to buy the books that the students need for the year. We simply need to know how many students we have for each grade.
The teachers use the “rote’ method of teaching. This method of memorization is difficult for many students who have different learning styles. Teachers are required to have a teacher’s certificate in order to teach. This is a two-year post secondary program offered by Teaching Schools.
What is the grading system?
Students are graded on a scale from 1 to 10 for every subject they take. There is an overall grade for each semester which is an average of their subject grades. If their average at the end of the year is 5.0 or better, they can move on to the next grade. If it is below 5.0, they must repeat the grade. Our minimum grade requirement is 6.0. If they have an average of below 6.0, they are dismissed from our program, unless there are extenuating circumstances.
At the end of their sixth grade year, freshman year, senior year (Rheto) and Philo (a mandatory 13th year for university entrance), there is a state-administered exam that must be passed to go on to the next grade. The Rheto and Philo exams are administered in Port-au-Prince and are expensive for the students to take. Yet they cannot go on in school unless they take these exams and pass them. They are allowed to take the exam a second time, without a charge. If the student fails the second time, the grade must be repeated and at the end of the year, the exam retaken. In our experience the most challenging exam is the Rheto (12th grade) exam.
Student Interviews
In August, we had the opportunity to sit down with several of our students and learn more about their lives, their challenges, and their dreams. In this newsletter, we share with you some of our students’ experiences and hopes for the future.
Fednor Sidort: 26 years old, sophomore at the Universite Autonome de Port-au-Prince, majoring in Business Management.
Fednor comes from a very poor family with ten children
-- only 2 out of the 10 attended school. His brother went as far as the
11th grade, but he had to drop out because there was no money to pay
his tuition. His parents earn a living by burning stones to make an
insect repellent that is painted on houses. Before he was accepted in the
program three years ago, Fednor attended school intermittently depending on the
money. Being a scholarship student changed his life – now, he says, he
has a future, and he hopes that he will be able to find a job after he
graduates so he can support his family.
Going to school and living in Port-au-Prince is very difficult for him. He rents a room for $385 a year, a fee that is almost impossible for him to pay. Sometimes he uses his book money to pay the rent, and then he must borrow books from his classmates. He is hungry a lot of the time, but he manages to buy one meal a day for $3.85. For that modest amount he receives a small piece of meat, some rice, a tomato, and 2 bananas. A gallon of water costs an additional $1.00. Traveling to and from school is another challenge. School is about a 2 hour walk from his room. He could take a “tap-tap” (public transportation), but that would cost him $1.00 per trip, and he can’t afford the $8.00 a week expense. So he wakes early and walks to school.
When we interviewed him, Fednor was on vacation from school and staying with his parents in Deschapelles. He has been studying and volunteering in our office organizing books and preparing for September. With all the challenges of life in Port-au-Prince, Fednor shares that it is all worth it. He is so proud to be a university student! He never thought that would be possible for him.
Delicier
Dieuseul: 26
years old, 4th year medical student at the University Notre Dame of Port-au-Prince.
Delicier was raised by his mother
along with 3 other children. He never knew his father, because he left
Haiti for South America when Delicier was a baby. His mother has a little
business selling basic foods such as flour, sugar, salt etc. The mother
has tried through the years to put all 4 of her children in school, but there
were some years when it was not possible. Delicier is the first person in
his family to graduate from high school.
When I asked him about life in Port-au-Prince, he said it was difficult moving from the country to the city. It took him one year to adjust. City life was distracting and difficult to cope with all of the challenges. Like Fednor, he rents a room for $385 a year. He walks 45 minutes to the station and takes a ‘tap-tap’ to school for about 50 cents a day. He finds medical school very challenging, but he is managing to keep up by studying all of the time. Sometimes it is hard to study because the apartment has intermittent electricity and there are no lights to read. He thinks he wants to be a pediatrician, and he is very excited about his future.
Helene Clervious, 25 years old, 4th year medical student at the Quisqueya Universite in Port-au-Prince.
Helene was born in the mountains
and lived there for the first 12 years of her life. She moved to
Deschapelles to live with her cousins in order to go to a better school.
Her parents eventually moved to Deschapelles, where they had a plot of land and
grew coffee. Like Fednor and Delicier, Helene says that she is the first
person to make it this far in her education and she thanks the scholarship fund
for that privilege. She lives with her sister in Port-au-Prince.
There are 8 people living in 2 rooms. One room has 3 beds, and they use
the rotation system for sleeping 2 per bed. The other room is a living
area with a table and chairs and a cupboard for dishes. The kitchen is outside
under a porch. They use an outhouse. She said traveling to school
is a real challenge. After a 30 minute walk to the station, she rides for
over an hour on the ‘tap-tap’ for $2.00 one way. (The price of gasoline
in Haiti is now over $6.00 a gallon.) She wants to be a surgeon after
medical school, and she hopes that she will be able to work at the Hopital
Albert Schweitzer when she graduates.
Emmanuelson Saturne: 24 years old, 2008 graduate from high school, will attend the University in the Fall. He will major in computer science.
Emmanuelson has lived in Borel, a
section of Deschapelles, all of his life. He and his mother live
alone. His father died when he was two years old in a car accident in New
York City, where he was a taxi driver. He had a brother, but he died
several years ago. His mother and he have always had a difficult time
earning enough money to put him in school. She has a little plot of land,
where she cultivates rice, but the business has not been very profitable.
There were many years when she was not able to send him to school.
He is very excited about attending the University in the fall. I asked about his living arrangements, and he shared with us that he has an uncle in Port-au-Prince who will rent him a room with electricity and a toilet for $250.00 a year. Electricity and toilets are luxuries that are hard to come by in Haiti!
Manisse Aimable: 21 years old, 2008 graduate from high school, will attend nursing school in the fall.
Manisse has been in the program
for over three years, and she is now very excited about nursing school in the
fall. She is so thankful for the scholarship program because there were many
years that she had to drop out of school for lack of funds. During those
years, she would study on her own and copy notes to try to catch up with the
other students. Sometimes after several months passed, the school would
allow her to return, if she had the tuition money.
Born and raised in Petite Riviere, she is the second of seven children. Her father works in the Dominican Republic as a mason, and he comes home once a year and brings money for the family. He stays for about a week and then must return. Her mother has a little business selling food products that she brings home from Port-au-Prince. She is not sure yet where she will live in Port-au-Prince; she has no relatives living there. She is the first person in her family to ever graduate from high school and go to the university. Her brothers only reached the 7th grade.
Board of
Directors
Board of
Advisors – Haiti
Frederick T. Crosby, President Yves Stanley Joseph, Chairman
Rebecca T. Crosby, Vice-President Luquece Belizaire
David W. Good Kesner Dutreuil
Michele K. Griswold, Secretary Wilner Joseph
Yves Stanley Joseph, Advisory Board Kettelie Petit-Lou Jules
Tom Sherer, Treasurer Jean Baptiste Vaudy
Staff
Rebecca T. Crosby, Executive Director Melet Derose, Program Administrator
Franck Cidort, Office Manager John Edner Raphael, Office Assistant
The Crosby Fund for Haitian Education is a 501 c (3) non-profit private organization. All contributions are fully tax deductible to the extent provided by law. 100% of your contribution goes directly to the Educational Program. Operating expenses in the U.S. are privately funded.