Haiti: Call to Save School Year, Amid Spiraling Violence

April 10, 2024 Hour: 1:09 pm

On Wednesday, the Haitian Parents’ Association called to save the school year affected by the current spiral of gang violence in the capital of the Caribbean country.

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The group expressed concern that students in the middle of the academic year are forced to stay at home to avoid being victims of aggression or stray bullets.

The association hopes that the necessary measures will be taken to facilitate the resumption of classes, while criticizing the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training, which has still not changed the timetable.

The leaders of this structure also call for a common front of all educational actors to allow the effective resumption of the course.

“These days, access to school is off-and-on, there’s no stability. Our education is regressing – we’re already getting close to the end of the school year, and we’ve learned nothing.”¬Samarre Marcelin Tecier, from Haiti. https://t.co/VvrkkUbotc

— UNICEF Haiti (@UNICEFHaiti)
March 28, 2024

The Haitian Parents’ Association recalled that the number of school days must be at least 200 to make it worthwhile and help children to save their school year.

In this context, Haiti’s Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training condemned the looting and burning of schools and universities by the gangs that control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince.

“Attacking and burning schools and universities, destroying archives, destroying school and university material, is destroying the main members of a society,” said a statement issued by the ministry.

@UNICEFHaiti

What the gangs are doing is destroying the central pillar of a house that allows the whole of society to stand firm in preparing the future of children and young people and of a country, the text points out.

The ministry called for unity to protect schools, reiterating that children’s right to education must be safeguarded at all times.

Haiti Libre newspaper recalls that the number of schools forced to close has increased in Haiti. At the end of January, some 900 schools were temporarily closed, depriving some 200,000 children of their right to education.