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By Carlos Sousa Oliveira and Mónica Amaral Ferreira, ICIST/IST, Portugal
Six months after the earthquake that shook Haiti in January 2010, what had been accomplished? It is urgent that schools, in particular, function again: for many Haitians, education is practically the only escape route out of poverty.
In January 2010 Haiti was rocked by an earthquake which devasted the already impoverished nation. The last quake of this magnitude hit the island some 250 years ago and modern Haiti has been much more concerned about increasingly frequent hurricanes than about earthquakes which fade from the collective memory. For this reason, as well as economic constraints, since 1950 builders have been using poor cement block masonry which support two to three storeys of heavy reinforced concrete slabs, giving practically no seismic protection. This, as well as unfavourable soil and topographic conditions, explain the extent of the catastrophy: thousands of structures collapsed, among which were Haiti’s schools. According to the Ministry of Education, 1 234 schools were destroyed and 2 504 were damaged [1]. Haiti’s best universities are in ruins; the country’s main nursing school is gone, as is the state medical college.
Education was hardly a priority for past governments: the country lacks schools, teaching material and qualified teachers and seven out of ten people in Haiti are illiterate. Already before the earthquake 25% of rural areas were without schools and an estimated 500 000 children of school age did not attend school, largely because their parents needed them to work or simply could not afford school fees: about 90% of Haiti's schools are small and private (run by a religious order and urban-based) [2].
Shortly after the earthquake, Portugal dispatched a team of researchers to Haiti to assess its social impact and the country’s engineering challenges. Six months after the event, it found that hardly any rubble had been cleared or any essential decisions made in terms of development plans and reorganisation. Few, if any, major reconstruction contracts had been awarded. However, many small primary and secondary level schools had reopened and students, smartly dressed in their school uniforms, had re-emerged on the streets. Amazingly, the Haitians did not show any signs of suffering. They seem to have a great resilience to devastating events - after all, they have lived through many.
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For these students, life goes on.
©: Mónica Amaral Ferreira
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Will this dramatic event provide an opportunity to build better schools and create a valid public education system which will meet Haiti’s needs? Haitians certainly would like to believe that it will: many of them are convinced that education is practically the only escape route out of poverty.
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In the midst of chaos: getting it right
©: Mónica Amaral Ferreira
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If this is to happen, over the coming years Haiti will need to bring about massive changes in its education system: it will need to improve the quality of teaching, train better teachers, offer scholarship programmes to Haitian students to study abroad and, most important, create a large number of public schools. Reconstruction efforts, as well as government conviction, will need to be unprecedented.
For more information, contact:
Carlos Sousa Oliveira
ICIST/IST (Instituto de Engenharia de Estruturas, Território e Construção, Instituto Superior Técnico, T U Lisbon)
Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
E-mail: csoliv@civil.ist.utl.pt
Mónica Amaral Ferreira
ICIST/IST
Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
E-mail: monicaf@civil.ist.utl.pt
[1] www.oecd.org/dataoecd/7/54/45671734.pdf
[2] http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/29/haiti_watch_education_after_the_quake
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