ARTICLE - FREE EDUCATION = CORRUPTION?

FREE EDUCATION SCANDALIZED BY PERCEIVED CORRUPTION
(Defend Haiti) - By S. Maxime

PORT-AU-PRINCE – Not benefiting from taxes levied on the Haitian Diaspora, the Minister of Education, Reginald Paul, updated the press on the status of the free education program and steps schools must take to obtain alternative financing with the National Bank of Credit (BNC).

Minister Reginald Paul informed the press on Friday that the money funding the education program thus far has come from the National Treasury, which had funds from the World Bank-funded Education for All program.

He told the press on Friday as well as before that President Michel Martelly's "National Fund for Education is not operational," in his ministry.

”All the funds we have used up until now have come from the National Treasury and the Minister of Finance. For the public schools we have disbursed 20 million gourds ($500,000[US]) and for the non-public schools an operation with the BNC (National Bank of Credit) will dispose 455 million gourds ($11,375,000[US]).”

Minister Reginald Paul continued to explain how he is managing the free education program of his ministry:

“We have a well-known figure; that is 903,000 children with free access to education.”

”Among those, 490,000 pupils are attending 1,390 public elementary schools in Haiti. We decided to eliminate school fees, which were 100 gourdes ($2.50 [US]) in the public schools.”

”7,084 private schools in the program are hosting 413,000 children.”

It is important to note that private schools are not being examined for their quality in this program.

”We have designed a mechanism to fund these schools to accommodate these children for free; transparently, so that when conducting audits, we will know if the students have really benefited from this fund. These funds are invested in banks such as National Bank of Credit (BNC), which manages the different accounts of the schools in the program.”

”Through these accounts, the schools involved will receive three installments of 33% based on the number of students they have.”

”Currently, in eight departments, except the Artibonite and West, the schools have received 100% of their allocations taken from the account.”

”The director of the school cannot freely decide to make a withdrawal from the account of his school; there are some conditions to be met.”

”First: the BNC has asked that schools have a license. Since it was very difficult for some institutions to present this document, the BNC has granted a three-month moratorium for the issuance of a license to access the account.”

”The second condition is that two people should be account signatories.”

”The third condition is that the school in question must be issued a letter by the departmental committee in its region. This letter will allow the school to have access to its account at the BNC....

”As part of the program of free education, 20 million gourds ($500,000 [US]) have been paid for public schools and 400 million ($10 million [US]) for non-public schools through the Ministry of Finance.”

“In parallel, we will soon launch a training program for teachers so they can provide quality education to students.”

”The ministry launched its website to allow everyone to have information not only regarding the education program but the activities of the Ministry of Education in general http://eduhaiti.gouv.ht . We also have a call center for this purpose." - Reginald Paul, Minister of Education

The National Fund for Education (FNE) began in June and was estimated to collect $8.5 million [US] per month through a tax on international phone calls and money transfers.

Education officials have not been able to use this money because it was not instituted in accordance to Haitian law and no one in the Haitian government knows where the estimated $55 million [US] is.

Haiti’s largest taxpayer, Denis O’Brien, the CEO of Digicel, the largest telecommunications company in the country has heard of these funds not being accounted for in the FNE and has requested an audit from President Michel Martelly.

Although taxes continue to be collected, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Commission declared the National Fund for Education is "nonexistent" in his eyes, saying:

"...unfortunately, there is a total opacity surrounding the creation, the collecting, and the use of resources of the National Fund for Education and I will continue to say that this fund doesn’t exist." - Jocelerme Privert, Senator Nippes/Inite

It is the students and the teachers that have suffered the most. There is an increased enrollment and unexplained lack of resources. Haiti's national schools have been unable to pay teachers, purchase education materials or provide regular lunches to their students. Haiti's educators have called for corrections to be made to the president's free education plan.