As much as basic teaching program requires the same essential components: reading, writing, mathematics and sciences, a national Haitian particular approach must take into fundamental consideration the culture, tradition, geography and level of development of each region. The knowledge and effective use of the language spoken by the total population is fundamental. No country has ever developed with an illiterate majority population. Schooling and efficient teaching are essential for the durable socio-economic development of the country.
Remembering that in Haiti, only one third of the children in first grade arrived in 3rd grade, we wander how many are those who did not reach the secondary level. Too many Haitians are functional illiterate without any apprenticeship or profession to help them survive in an ill functional society. All along the governments in accord with the civil society have degrading the essential human resources of the country in depriving too many among the Haitian population of the opportunity to learn adequately.
Responsible individuals in charge of the well-being of the national population must remember that the country’s socio-economic development depends on the maximal utilization of its human potential. That can be accomplished when professional/vocational instruction is provided adequately and in the student’s language at all teaching level. The child who is given the opportunity to understand and learn reading, writing, mathematics, natural science, geography, and languages (written and spoken) at the rhythm of his/her ability, is more likely to become a good learner and more importantly a productive citizen.
Since January 1980, Haiti has a program of educational reform. As imperfect as it may be, it can serve as a basis for a comity of liberated educators, ethnologists, sociologists, economists, agronomists, hygienists, engineers, and spiritual leaders among others to gather for the purpose of revising and improving the 1980 educational proposed reform and to come up with a lay Haitian educational program to generate a sustainable socio-economic development. The first nine years could be the fundamental schooling years, including classical and technical teaching, while the next three years should include at least four tracks leading to classical, pedagogical, scientific and technical/vocational terminal diplomas. The baccalaureate should become a national exam leading to superior schools and university studies.
Now, Haiti needs a legion of at least 50,000 dedicated and well trained educators, as well as that many communal coordinators for public hygiene, agriculture, artisanal production, and other areas of interest to the communal population in its efforts to be better informed, more comfortable in its environment, and to become its own agent of progress and development. These suggestions and others must be discussed in the sole interest of the Haitian population and its future. The traditional belief that the republic is only the country’s capital must be abandoned. The Republic is the whole country which will be prosperous only when most of its cities, towns and communal populations will be informed enough to initiate a level of sustainable socio-economic development.
A Valid Educational System is Essential for a Sustainable Socio-Economic Development
