ARTICLE - FEP - TEACHERS WANT CORRECT.

HAITIAN TEACHERS WANT CORRECTIONS TO PRESIDENT'S FREE EDUCATION PROGRAM
(Defend Haiti) - By S. Maxime

PORT-AU-PRINCE – Teachers of Haiti’s public schools are urging corrections in the free education program of President Michel Martelly, noting that there are problems of transparency, a significant number of teachers are not being paid, schools are unable to purchase teaching materials, and have to cancel school lunches.

The free public institutions, that already were struggling financially, have seen the numbers of students enrolled increase but argue that waiving the yearly registration fee of $2.50-$5.00[US], has compounded their problems since the state has not provided compensation for the losses.

The Secretary-General of the National Confederation of Haitian Educators (CNEH), Edith Delouis Lourdes, said after the one month delay of the start of the school year, the government had not made plans for giving students free education:

”When they announced they would delay the opening of the schools until October, we at the CNEH (National Confederation of Haitian Educators) assumed that planning was being done,... a fusion of the means of the state and what benefits it can bring.”

”We put aside the national schools because they are already free, except for a fee ($2.50-$5.00[US] per year) that the children paid… but the schools were already free with plenty of children.”

”With the president’s program we thought there would be an increase in classrooms and an increase in schools, also. “

Doubts that 903,000 Students are in School for Free

The Secretary-General of the CNEH said they have not been able to verify the claims that 903,000 students are attending school for free this year.

”No, we have not been able to confirm the shift. It is trying, we are trying, to see where this shift is and understand the shift… the kids in the public schools that don’t have to pay registration fees, they have added them to this number, .... this shift.”

”And there are those who are in private schools who also have signed contracts to get paid for these children, but we have not confirmed this shift either.”

”We believe there should be detailed statistics that says: here are how many students that are in the state’s schools, here are the students that are in private schools, here are the students that are in community schools. It is when we truly have these statistics that we can have a better have an appreciation for these shifts.”

”We hear the publicizing, we hear about it on the radio but we truly haven’t been able to get a good appreciation, but we know that the majority are in the state’s schools.”

Diaspora Supported National Fund for Education?

When asked about the National Fund for Education, Mrs. Lourdes responded the same as other citizens and members of the government:

”…according to what I’ve heard this is a fund that has not been touched because they haven’t told us anything..”

”And they know for a fund to enter into the state’s account there must be a process, there should be an accompanying law that says: here is why it exists, this is how it should be distributed, this is who is supposed to distribute it, who is supposed to spend it…”

”Since there is no law accompanying it, no one is aware of what it is and also, nobody knows how much is in it…”

”But still, every time you go and make a transfer at the transfer centre, they take money from the transfer… all of this is information people are asking for…”

President Michel Martelly's National Fund for Education (FNE) was launched in May 2011 with the aims of collecting $8.5 million [US] per month by excising international phone calls at 5 cents per minute and attaching a fee to international money transfers at $1.50 per transfer.

Since the launch of the FNE, the estimated $60 million [US] expected to be in the government's account for education has not been found.

In a meeting with the Senate Finance Committee in December, the Governor of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti said that $4.8 million [US] were all the dollars in the FNE and that no withdrawals had been made from the fund, and that this only accounted for money collected through the $1.50[US] fee on transfers.

The National Palace Adviser on Education, Dimitri Nau, last week said he does not know how much money is in the FNE or where the money is but claims that a lack of a legal framework for the FNE prevents the Ministry of Education from using the funds. In the meantime, funds in the National Treasury from the Education for All program, and loans from the National Bank of Credit are the ministry's plans for surviving through the deficit.

The government of Haiti has spent an unprecedented amount of money on a campaign of radio and television commercials, billboards and even in the speeches of the president claiming that nearly a million children are attending school for free.