New Academic Course Kicks Off in Haiti Amid the Violence

Kids Backing to the School, Octuber 1, 2024 Photo: @mohcaribbean

October 1, 2024 Hour: 7:00 pm

The academic year began on Tuesday in Haiti, but it did so unevenly with some schools closed and others converted into camps for displaced persons amid violence, especially in Port-au-Prince, and without special measures to ensure the safety of pupils.

In the metropolitan area of the capital, the start of the academic year 2024-2025 was timid and uneven: while in some streets and neighborhoods today children were dressed in their uniforms, in other areas dozens of schools do not work after becoming accommodation, in subhuman conditions, of those who have had to flee their homes because of violence.

Many other residents of Port-au-Prince have moved to safer areas in the country and there, as recently warned by the organization Save The Children, this course some schools will be overcrowded.

At the beginning of this year, although traffic in the capital increased somewhat, there were no traffic jams caused by public and private transport to and from school.

After 6 long years away from school, Sofia is finally back on the path to education!

UNICEF and the Government are working together to ensure every child can return to school, even in these challenging times.

Together, let’s give every child the opportunity to learn and thrive. pic.twitter.com/rvuBuv5oWQ
— UNICEF Haiti (@UNICEFHaiti) October 1, 2024

The Haitian Prime Minister, Garry Conille, went to the Lycée des Jeunes Filles in Chemin des Dalles (Centre-Ville, Port-au-Prince), where he was greeted by three students dressed in their uniforms.

In addition to explaining the efforts made in education, he expressed concern about the situation of pupils whose schools have been converted into camps for displaced persons.

“My special thought goes to the children who will not be able to return to school at this beginning of the year because they are hostages of criminal groups. I would like to take this opportunity to say to these children and their parents that the Government I lead is sympathetic to their situation and promises to put in place all necessary measures to create the material and environmental conditions that will enable them to access education. There must be no disparity in education”, he stressed.

The opening of the course in Haiti takes place in a context of extreme insecurity, with armed attacks, kidnappings, gang rapes and clashes between police and gangs.

In Haiti, according to UN data, some 700,000 people have been displaced by violence and it is estimated that more than half of them are children.