Haiti's schools struggle
2010-01-31 13:32
Special Report
There is not much left of the city's numerous churches, beside crosses and the occasional surviving stained glass window...
Port-au-Prince - Schools in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, devastated by a catastrophic earthquake that left hundreds of students and teachers missing, are struggling to find a way to resume lessons.
School-aged children make up 40% of Haiti's population of over nine million people, but one in four children did not attend school before the disaster almost three weeks ago.
The limited number of schools in the impoverished nation also meant that many students attended classes in shifts, with the first group arriving in the morning and studying until 15:00 and the second beginning in the afternoon and leaving around 19:00.
The shift system meant that when the 7.0-magnitude quake struck at 16:53 on January 12, classrooms in Port-au-Prince were full of afternoon students, who often come from poorer families and work during the day before school.
The director of the Canape Vert school, Marie-Marthe Paul, said: "It's a disaster. There were many deaths. I've lost irreplaceable teachers".
When the quake hit, the school was holding a seminar on future teaching plans. Twenty-three bodies were later pulled from the building's ruins.
"Not a single school in the capital was untouched...they were either destroyed or riven with cracks," added Jacky Lumarque, Quisqueya University's superintendent.
The university was destroyed in the quake and lost dozens of students and he doesn't foresee resuming any classes inside school buildings for weeks.
Tents
The French school in Port-au-Prince escaped major structural damage, but lost a teacher and seven students during the quake.
Internet courses are being organised for the coming week and a partial return to classes is planned by March 1, though it was not clear how many students were still in town to be taught.
Around half of the 700 children enrolled at the school have left Haiti for Miami, Montreal or France.
International organisations working here are hoping to set up learning spaces for children throughout the city's neighbourhoods.
"What is stopping us is the lack of tents," said Alain-Georges Bangoura, of French organisation Aide et Action.
Plan International, a British group that focuses on children, has begun recruiting student volunteers to organise and supervise other children until classes can resume.
"In a month, all the NGO experts will have gone. That's how it is. So we are training students who can help provide support to children," said Steve Theobald, a spokesperson for the organisation, which had gathered dozens of future teaching assistants by Saturday.
Plan International was showing them how to teach children to take care of injured siblings or parents, but also, simply, "how to laugh again," he said.
For Lumarque, who heads Haiti's presidential commission on education, the tragedy is a chance to rethink Haiti's school and university system "to find ways to better respond to community-based problems."
About 54% of Haitians are illiterate, and 90% of educational establishments are private, with less than a quarter of those accredited by the Haitian government.
- SAPA