About this picture: The level of education in Haiti is low. Haiti’s literacy rate of about 53 percent (55 percent for males and 51 percent for females) falls well below the 90 percent average literacy rate for Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Under President Aristide, some improvements have been made. In 1997 the government passed a 10-year education plan, with the goal of universal access to quality schools.
The national education budget increased from 9 percent of the national budget in 1997 to 22 percent in 2000, which paid for programs to provide school lunches, uniforms, and bus transportation.
Additionally, in 2002 the government began a literacy campaign, facilitated by 30, 000 literacy monitors and the distribution of 700, 000 literacy manuals.
Overall, school attendance rose from 20 percent in 1994 to 64 percent in 2000. Even with these improvements, however, the country still faces severe shortages in educational supplies and qualified teachers, and the rural population remains vastly underrepresented in the country’s classrooms.
Currently, most Haitian schools are private rather than state-funded.
International private schools (run by Canada, France, or the United States) and church-run schools educate 90 percent of students.
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