OMPT has played an advisory role in some of this project.

Location: Haiti

Date: January, 2008

NGO partners: EDC

The Situation

Extreme poverty is widespread, 70 per cent of Haitians live on less that $1 a day. The adult illiteracy rate is 55 per cent; less than 25 percent of children of school age have access to primary schooling in rural areas.

Half of Haiti's children do not attend or have never attended primary school. Those who do attend, likely attend for less than four years, compared with 13 years in other Latin American and Caribbean Countries.

Most primary schools in Haiti are not run by the Government.  Instead, they are church sponsored or privately owned. Parents pay approximately 15% of their salaries in order to send just one child to school. In a country of such extreme poverty, education is still expensive.

There is very little regulation of education and many teachers are unqualified. Schools have few books and lack basic training materials. Many schools have no running water or electricity.

The quality of education that is provided is so poor that a child will spend an average of 14 years just to reach the 6th grade. That's over two years for each grade. In Haiti, it is not uncommon to see 12-year-old attending a 3rd grade class.

Interactive Radio Instruction in Haiti Video

DOT EDU/EDA Haiti Distance Education from Matt York on Vimeo. 

Learning Technologies Project - Haiti