In Haiti, only about 52% of women are educated or even literate, while over 67% of men in Haiti are educated. Education, especially in Haiti, is very important because without an education, you are unable to obtain a job on there. A big challenge for women in Haiti is becoming pregnant at such a young age. Once the woman has her baby, she is unable to receive an education because she has to stay at home to raise her child and take care of the house as well. Over 80% of the schools in Haiti are privately managed meaning they charge tuition. As I talked about in my last activity post, Haiti is a poorer country with a struggling economy. A lot of people in Haiti, especially women, cannot afford to pay the price for education.

The earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 destroyed over 5,000 schools across the country making education even more limited than it was before. Still to this day, they are struggling to rebuild because they lack the funds needed to. If a woman does receive some education in Haiti, it is only up to seven years old. After this girls are pulled out of school to help with chores.

According to the Haitian times, if a woman does receive a job after getting education, she will only make minimum wage. The cost of living in Haiti is four times higher than minimum wage. How is a woman supposed to support herself alone, on top of that raising her kids and taking care of the house? According to google scholars, Haiti has the largest proportion of people living in poverty and the highest mortality level of any country in the Americas. Even if a woman or man does receive an education in Haiti, it is not a high quality education meaning the professors teaching are not too educated, and very few even being qualified. Around 48% of the teachers remain unpaid, often causing riots and strikes due to this. 80% of the women teachers have never received any pre service training and about 35% have never even had a formal education or attended a secondary school.

Because of all of this, there are organizations that the women in Haiti put together to demand a better education. One main one is called “Educate a child” in which their overall goal is to increase access to education by expanding the schools already built. Studies show that young girls with little to no education are more likely to be children of domestic violence. Another huge factor that affects the quality of their education is that in the schools, they teach French which is only found on the standardized tests when the majority of that country speaks creole. The literacy rate of women is significantly lower than the rate of men due to lack of education more towards women. Women often face malnutrition which makes it hard for them to stay in school. Even though the education and literacy rate is going up for women in Haiti, there is still a long way to go and, hopefully, soon women will be just as equal as men for this.

“Global Campaign For Education United States Chapter.” Global Campaign For Education United States Chapter, www.campaignforeducationusa.org/.

“Bailey Media Canada.” Haitian Times, haitiantimes.com/category/haiti/.

“Nursing and Nursing Education in Haiti.” Nursing Outlook, Mosby, 13 July 2011, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0029655411000935.