Developing capacities for a stronger education system in Haiti

27 September 2017

The UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and the European Union launched this week the project "Analyzing and strengthening the management and planning of Haiti’s education system.”

Developed jointly with the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP), the seven-month project started with a three-day workshop (25-27 September). Funded by the European Union with €335,000 euros, the project aims to strengthen the capacities of the Ministry and its devolved administrations in educational planning and strategic management.

Speaking on the occasion of the project’s launch, European Union Ambassador Vincent Degert made the following statement: "Improving the education system requires improving the capacities of the actors operating at the institutional level and throughout the decentralized chain. If we want to have a better system, it is essential to reinforce the skills of the managers of the ministries upstream and to supervise them at the technical level.”

IIEP’s Director Suzanne Grant Lewis said: “We look forward to seeing how this project can translate into concrete improvement in Haiti’s education system. The training of individual educational planners and broader capacity development efforts at the institutional level go hand in hand and are mutually reinforcing. As a proud partner, we hope this will lead to a stronger foundation in which all Haitian children can access their right to a quality education.”

Haiti has made considerable efforts to strengthen the education sector in terms of access and quality. However, most of the objectives of its Operational Plan 2010-2015 are far from being achieved. Although the net primary school enrollment rate increased from 50% to 84% between 2005 and 2012, the transition rate to secondary level remains a major challenge.

This project is structured around three main components: 

  1. An analysis of individual and institutional capacities to guide future capacity-building interventions in the planning and managing of the education system;
  2. The development of a strategic plan for capacity building, which will be a direct contribution to the country's future educational plan;
  3. The development of professional capacities for MENFP staff so that the Ministry can depend on these planners to manage the planning and management of the education system. 

As a whole, these components will strengthen the department's ability to better plan its work and act more strategically. 

The MENFP is also now redefining its priorities and seeking to analyze its human resources needs in order to align competent teams with the educational challenges of the country, to ensure the proper functioning of the administration of education, and to ensure that all schools can welcome and teach children. However, 85% of schools in Haiti are private and 70% of them are not accredited by the MENFP.

Trainees during the three-day workshop in September 2017.

 

Seven Ministry officials have now completed a training course in Port-au-Prince, which will ultimately lead them to joining around 30 other educational planners from around the globe in Paris this coming January. They will follow IIEP's Advanced Training Programme (ATP), an in-depth one-year training in educational management and planning.

The second major activity of the project will be to carry out a diagnosis of individual, organizational and institutional capacities in planning and managing the education system, which will contribute to Haiti’s future ten-year sectoral plan.