Notes From Leogane No. 11: School Colors, the Haitian Education System and Watson

Dear Family and Friends:


Each morning from Monday through Friday, there are processions of school children past my window and on other streets near here.  But unlike many neighborhoods in the United States, the students are not wearing an individualized outfit from J. Crew, Guess, Banana Republic, Target or Walmart. 

No student here would be allowed out on the street wearing the short shorts I have noticed some young ladies in my neighborhood wearing as I have driven by a school bus stop on Mountain View on my way to Starbucks. (There is no Starbucks in Leogane, but I'm doing just fine.)


Students in Leogane, and in the rest of Haiti, wear uniforms to school whether they are attending a private or public school. Each school has a distinct uniform style and colors. And, within a school, the colors of uniforms may sometimes vary depending on the grade level of students.

Over the course of the last two months, a veritable rainbow of uniform colors have passed by here in the morning and again later in the day when students return from school.  Next door, at the Episcopal Church's L'Ecole Sainte Croix, girls wear dark blue jumpers with light brown short sleeved blouses. Boys wear dark blue pants and light brown short sleeve shirts. Students attending L'Ecole Sainte Rose de Lima wear the trademark all blue in two shades, uniforms of that school. Everyone here knows their school colors because as reported after the earthquake "the centerpiece of the City [Leogane] was the Sainte Rose de Lima School." Because of its Port-au-Prince, the solid brown pants and skirts, with brown checked blouses and shirts, colors of College St. Pierre ("CSP") (elementary and high school levels) are well known in Port-au-Prince.  The attached "CPS students back in school" photograph shows students at this school in one of the one of the temporary buildings erected but a few months after the earthquake. A photograph of some of earthquake damage to CSP also is shown.

  

Other uniform color combinations passing by my window since I arrived on March 30th have been grey skirts and pants and yellow blouses and shirts, dark and light green combinations, and a red and pink tartan pattern shirt and long brown shorts for very young boy students.  Some of those uniforms are shown in other of the photographs attached here, along with a few downloaded from websites.


Watson attends L'Ecole Anacaona. I think the school is named after the Taino queen Anacaona. Most of the time my Kreyol lessons with him are in late afternoon so that he has changed his duds. One day though he came by in his uniform--dark blue pants, white shirt and a matching dark blue tie.  Very crisp lines I might say.

You also can see students in brown colored uniforms in photographs of the funeral procession included with Note From Leogane No. 7.  In that note, I mistakenly said that "[t]he large contingent of girls toward the front, in light brown outfits, are Girl Scouts."  In the note, I mentioned that Peterson was walking toward the back of the funeral procession.  In a conversation a few weeks ago, Peterson said that the girls in the front were students who attended the same school as Peterson's deceased friend. 

Though I was mistaken about Girls Scouts being in the funeral photos, there is no mistaking the fact that one of Leogane's Girl Scouts, Joanie Estin, whose photograph is attached, and other Girl Scouts here gained some notoriety within a few days after the earthquake. As reported in a CARE International publication on 24 January 2010:

" ' I can't describe how frightened I was,' recalls Joanie  Estin, remembering that terrible day barely a week ago when her world fell apart. ' We've lived through a lot in Haiti, but this is the first time anything like this ever happened.' But Joanie doesn't look scared.  Sad, yes -- but resolute, confident and committed. Every inch the Girl Scout. 'I always keep a cool head because otherwise you won't be able to help other people,' she says calmly. The 22-year-old wears her uniform with pride, the sky-blue kerchief of the Ste. Rose de Lima Scouts of Leogane tied neatly over her beige dress. Today that uniform means more to her than most people can imagine.

Joanie was enjoying the early evening socializing with neighbors outside, as was the custom on the Rue de la Liberte in Leogane, when the unthinkable happened. Her father was the only one inside the house when it collapsed. They never saw him again. The surviving family members -- Joanie, her mother, and six siblings -- have been living at a local school, the Ecole des Freres, ever since.  

'I was so overwhelmed at first. My mother and I stood still in the middle of the road or about 15 minutes until the earth calmed. Then we went home, and our house had been completely destroyed.' Joanie coped the way she always has--by getting down to work. As soon as she could, she found her way back to Ste. Rose de Lima and, with 50 boys and girls who had survived the earthquake, started rallying.

As many of the local Scouts and Girls Guides who could find each other in the aftermath -- 94 in all -- began volunteering their services to humanitarian groups, including CARE, that bring critical supplies to survivors in central Leogane. 'We try to advise the people on how to stay calm, and we help the international agencies with the distributions. For me, it's a good deed done.  It helps me feel better.'

On Wednesday a group of Scouts served as security and emotional support as CARE delivered soap, sanitary napkins and other hygiene supplies to women of Leogane. The boys stood guard to help control the anxious throngs outside the site -- a telecommunications office laid idle by the quake. The girls provided gentle guidance, walking alongside the tired and frightened women as they braved the crowds and noonday heat.

'These young people are the future of Haiti. They are the ones who are going to pick up the pieces and help rebuild this country,' said Sophie Perez, CARE Haiti country director.  'It gives me great hope to see that they have already started that task.'

For Joanie, there was really no other choice.  It's who she is. When the dust settled on the ruins of her house, Joanie was able to crawl in a back door to retrieve a few things.  'I don't know what came over me -- I just did it,' she says. She managed to save just a few clothes, a cosmetics case--and one more thing, the most important of all. Her uniform. "
("Haiti : Scout's Honour Part 2 : Profile in Courage," www.care.international.org.uk/news-and-pres (24 Jan. 2010)

In Note #2, I reported on my first walk around Leogane on April 1, 2011, and how Bob Sloane - who had been in Leogane several times as a volunteer surgeon before the  quake - remarked that it brought tears to your eyes to see what had happened to the church and school at Ste. Rose de Lima.  He said it was the most beautiful site in Leogane.

 I didn't fully appreciate the deep hole in the heart of Leogane from the complete loss of Ste. Rose de Lima until I spoke to Watson and did some reading recently. Photographs of the church before and after the quake are attached as well as a photograph of the bells from the church's demolished bell tower.

I don't think you can overstate the devastation the earthquake caused the delivery of education in Haiti, which questionably was in need of significant reform before January 12, 2010.  But one example of the magnitude of the loss of life of students and educators in Haiti from the earthquake is captured by this January 19, 2010 report from Leogane by the Washington Post:

"Townspeople say as many as 500 nuns, priests and students were crushed to death when the cream-colored walls of Sainte Rose de Lima School collapsed in last Tuesday's earthquake, a disaster that destroyed the emotional and physical centerpiece of this city."

I expect that the emotional hold the church and school had/has on the people of Leogane, regardless of their faith tradition, can be traced in part to the fact that the church was one of the oldest in Haiti. Jean Jacques Dessalines was married in the church. Indeed all of the city of Leogane is a historic place. In 2013, it will be 350 years old. Leogane is the birthplace of the Taino queen Anacaona, though at that time it was called Yaguana. I have been told that in some circles, Anacaona is frequently mentioned alongside other Haitians of great historical significance, such as Toussaint l'Overture and Jean Jacques Dessalines, the principal leaders of the fight for Haiti independence that officially was declared on January 1, 1804. Anacaona was executed by the Spanish three centuries earlier, reportedly in 1504, at the age of thirty-nine.

At the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti's renowned College of St. Pierre in Port-au-Prince, which has instruction through the secondary level, 800 students were enrolled before January 12, 2010.  Three hundred students were entombed in quake rubble.

    
This Note cannot possibly serve as a vehicle for a meaningful discussion of the failings of the Haitian education system before January 12, 2010, though undoubtedly there were many, which unquestionably have been aggravated by the earthquake and its aftermath.  Here I report but a few statistics that I have learned of from various web searches.

Haiti's literacy rate is 53%; 55% males/51% females; well below the average literacy rates for Latin American and Caribbean countries. The rural population is underrepresented in the country's classrooms. Most Haitian schools are private rather than state-funded. While the enrollment rate for primary school is 67%, less than 30% reach 6th grade. Secondary schools only enroll 20% of eligible-age children. Before the earthquake, one source reported that less than 40% of schools were accredited.

The extent of the damage to educational facilities is hard to fathom. "About half of the nation's 15,000 primary schools and 1,500 secondary schools were affected by the earthquake and the three main universities in Port-au-Prince were also almost totally destroyed. The earthquake also destroyed a nursing school in the capital, one of the three such schools in the country.  .  .  ."  (ReliefWeb/UN reports dated 18 Jan. and 22 Jan. 2010.)

The Episcopal University of Haiti was one of the universities in Port-au-Prince that was completely destroyed. A Diocese of Haiti reconstruction report estimates that $18.1 million (U.S.) will be needed to rebuild the university. The rebuilding costs estimate for College Ste. Pierre is $13. million (U.S.). I was able to better appreciate the standing of CSP among educational institutions in Haiti after I read the following from a "History Of College St. Pierre":

"[In 1956], the school began offering courses for the 6th, 7th and 8th grades. On May 11, 1958 Monsignor Charles Alfred Voegli laid the first stone for the construction of the College Saint Pierre's new location at 53 Capois Street, Champ de Mars, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At the end of 1958, the college moved into the new building where all the secondary classes were held.

The College Saint-Pierre is a secondary school that accepts all categories of students. It is one of the oldest institutions of the Episcopal Church of Haiti and offers a Christian and educational formation. It is known as a center for sports and recreation for many people living in Port-au-Prince. The school has formed many executives during its 53 years of existence not only for Haiti but for foreign countries as well. Roger Jean, father of Madame Michaelle Jean, current Governor of Canada, was a director of the College of Saint Pierre. It is also one of the best schools in the Republic of Haiti recognized by the Ministry of National Education and of Professional Formation.

In 2004, during the episcopacy of Monsignor Jean Zache Duracin, the college was enlarged by the construction of a new computer lab, a chemistry lab, an infirmary, an auditorium, several administrative rooms, a soccer field, a basketball court, a volleyball court and cafeteria.   .  .  ."
(2011 Friends of College of St. Pierre submitted by Pere Rigal Lucas , College St. Pierre)

    
Before the earthquake, the Episcopal University of Haiti and College Ste. Pierre were more than  educational institutions. They also were cultural centers for all Haitians. As noted on a web page for the Children's Medical Mission of Haiti, both the Musee d'Art Haitian and the National Art Museum were located at College Saint Pierre. The Holy Trinity Music School was operated by the Episcopal Diocese in cooperation with the College. The Episcopal Holy Trinity Philharmonic Orchestra has served as Haiti's unofficial state orchestra.

All of the homes for these important cultural institutions were destroyed in the earthquake along with but three of the Murals of Holy Trinity the Episcopal Cathedral. In Leogane, students who were two years old and attended classes next to the historic Saint Ste. Rose de Lima Church now go to a make-shift facility three or four blocks to the east, across the street from l'Hopital Sainte Croix, though plans already have been prepared for a new school. Similarly, students at L'Ecole Ste. Croix now receive instruction primarily in open air plywood constructed classrooms. I have reviewed the impressive plans for new school buildings and recreation areas at L'Ecole Ste. Croix, and for a new Episcopal Church and hospital buildings, subject of course to there being all necessary funding in place as needed.

Fortunately, the Faculte des Sciences Infirmieres de l'Universite Episcopale d'Haiti in Leogane ("FSIL"), which is about one mile from l'Hopital Ste. Croix, survived the earthquake without any significant damage. The nursing college was built recently enough to have been designed to withstand an earthquake. I think I may have previously mentioned that the buildings and outside grounds of FSIL were converted into an emergency ward and trauma center on the day of the earthquake. Nursing students assisted in the delivery of babies for several weeks. From January 12 through the end of May 2010, 5,000 surgeries were performed on the grounds of FSIL.

Unquestionably, rebuilding the schools and colleges is only part of the challenge of improving education in Haiti. Some aspects of systemic reform have been summarized in "Rand Review," a publication of the Rand Corporation, which has been involved in the publications of numerous Haiti-related analyses and position papers before and after the earthquake:

"There are three needs for the education system in Haiti: substantially expanding access to education (which requires the government to spend many times more than it now does on education over and above the costs of rebuilding the roughly 5,000 schools destroyed in the earthquake); improving the quality of education (which means recruiting, educating, and training teachers; establishing a national curriculum; providing textbooks that align with content standards; and ensuring that students attend elementary school without dropping out for extended periods of time); and exerting oversight to guarantee access and to enforce quality controls, such as the establishment of a regulatory system to accredit and inspect schools and of teacher-training programs.

Only a third of Haitian children reach the fifth grade, and only 4 percent enter high school. In a nation that lacks a middle class which would normally supply teachers, it is not surprising that teacher quality is extremely low. Tests administered to a representative sample of 1,200 private and public school teachers in 1996 showed that one in three teachers did not know how to sequence words alphabetically; eight in ten could not use the passive verb form in French; and fewer than one in ten performed satisfactorily on fourth-grade mathematics.   .  .  ."
(Rand Review / Winter 2010 - 2011)

 One of the students who has beaten the low high school attendance odds is my friend Watson, who I previously mentioned is one of the mobile clinic translators and also is my Kreyol teacher. As I have complained to him on more than one occasion, Watson is all business when teaching me Kreyol, in spite of my attempts to crack jokes from time to time. This is surprising to me because he is both witty and sarcastic with a great sense of humor which he displayed quite well when Jeanne came to visit me less than two weeks ago. Watson has "friended" Jeanne on Facebook. I think that's what you call it though I really wouldn't know. I told Watson that I'll keep in touch by email.

I've already apologized to Watson for not being able to come to his July 1, 2011, graduation, the day after I end this trip to Haiti. Watson is Vice President of his class. He is graduating from the 13th grade of secondary school. He is fluent in English and French and of course Kreyol.  His Spanish is pretty good, but he says it needs a lot of work. After graduation in mid-July he will still need to take the national exam administered to all 13th grade students. National exams also are administered to students at the 6th, 9th and 12th grade levels. I expect that the requirement to pass a proficiency exam at the 6th grade level is a factor in only 4-20% (statistics vary) of age eligible students entering secondary school as well as the costs for private schools - the dominant providers of education in Haiti.

Last Friday Watson and I traveled together to Port-au-Prince. On our way back as we were talking in the bed of a pickup truck while holding down a large crate, he mentioned that a year or so ago he had been offered a full ride scholarship by a private high school in North Carolina.  He couldn't accept it because the U.S. State Department had not issued a student travel visa.  

Learning about his frustration in not being able to improve the quality of his secondary education in North Carolina was a bit ironic, considering the fact that just four days before our trip to the big city a group of nine undergraduate students from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina arrived here with their coordinator for a two month stay at the HSC Guesthouse. Their volunteer work through the "Duke Engaged" program will undoubtedly provide them with lasting impressions about Haiti and important life lessons.

It is not my purpose here to get involved in a discussion of U.S. immigration policies. I will reserve that for a different time and setting and private conversations. I mention Watson's inability to go to high school in North Carolina as just one example of how some of the best and brightest students in Haiti will not necessarily receive the highest level of education they are well capable of pursuing for a variety of reasons and circumstances.

From Watson I learned that there is only one state run university in Haiti--Universite d'Etat d'Haiti ("the State University of Haiti'). As a beneficiary of a public university education at Arizona State University and the U of A and the G.I. Bill, I know firsthand how access to a government financed education allows someone to obtain a college education that would not be possible were a private college or university the only available institution of learning. (As previously noted for a few of you, or maybe more than a few, my alma mater is Arizona State University. The U of A was my trade school, though the best trade school of its kind in Arizona.)

I'm a big fan of Watson, but please don't tell him I said that. While he is not known in Leogane in the same manner as Joanie Estin, I know he is a born leader. He is of good character. Watson is held in high regard by members of mobile clinic teams he has worked for over the past year even though he was only 18 years old when he started working as a translator. During the past two months, several teams who will return to Leogane during the next twelve months have made special requests to have Watson included in the team of translators for their next trip to Leogane.

Time will only tell which future path or roads to higher education my friend, and Jeanne's friend, Watson will be able to take.

I hope this Note finds you and your loved ones in good health and spirits.

David

08 June 2011

Dear Family and Friends:

I hope you will allow the comments below forwarded with permission from the Rev. Dorian Mulvey, the Rector at St. Anthony on the Desert, the church where Jeanne and I belong -  to serve as an Addendum to Notes From Leogane No. 11.  Many thanks to Dorian.

It was an interesting contrast to read your notes on the schools in Haiti, especially the inadequate training of the teachers and the story of Watson succeeding despite all the odds against him and then to read an article in the NY Times about private tutoring. Apparently parents who send their children to the most exclusive private schools in New York (tuition in excess of $35,000 annually) also pay for private tutoring to insure that their children receive A's in their advance placement courses and high SAT scores. The range was from $35,000 to over $100,000 a year in tutoring. The tutors themselves receive anywhere from $100 to over $700 for a 100 minute session (clearly a lucrative profession!). One might question how as a society we can reconcile such exorbitant spending on a few while denying so many children in the world with even a basic education.

Blessings,

Dorian+