INTL 190 - Haiti in a Transnational Context

Education System

One of the major differences that stand out between education in Haiti and Chile is in regard to the structure and composition of the education system. In Haiti, there are both challenges in terms of demand and supply in education. Considering the demand side, a Haitian parent is required to pay an average of US$80 as tuition fee per child every year. It is important to understand that this tuition fee is exclusive of the books, transportation and uniform fee. This makes it very difficult for Haitians to afford even the basic education for their children (Arthur & Dash, 1999). On the supply side, there are not enough spaces for children to even enroll in school. Similarly, the education or the school system in Haiti is dominated by non-public sector. In this regard, 80 percent of the primary schools in Haiti are non-public. They are either run by for profit, non-governmental or faith based organizations. This 80 percent enrolls more than 80 percent of all the primary school children. As such, it is prudent to argue that the education system in Haiti faces significant demand and supply challenges with the government lagging behind in bettering the education system (Dupuy, 2014). This makes it difficult for the ordinary Haitian to afford the basic education as the private sector that has dominated the education realm in the country proves to be expensive.

Chile on the other hand has taken its education system seriously formulated policies that seek to strengthen or rather to offer every Chilean affordable education. Structured along the 19th century French and German models, the Chilean education system, unlike the Haitian education system is divided into eight years of free and compulsory basic or rather primary education, Four years of optional secondary education and additional varied years of higher education. It is important to understand that this is different from the Haitian education system where it is highly dominated by the nonpublic schools that charge high tuition fees making it difficult for ordinary Haitians to afford even the basic education (Demombynes, Holland & León, 2010). On the contrary, the Chilean education system offers free eight years of primary education making it possible for every Chilean to afford basic education. Overall, even though the Haitian government endeavors to promote the development or rather the improvement of the education sector in the country, there is minimal resource allocation in the education realm so far which has significantly crippled education in the country. In Chile on the other hand, the government provides schools with high levels of autonomy. Regardless of the presence of privately owned learning institutions, the government offers a high proportion of subsides to public schools. Further, Chile has high expenditure on educational institutions. It has one of the highest expenditure per student among the OECD countries at the primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary levels of education.

This page has paths: