INNOVA Research Journal, ISSN 2477-9024

Correo: innova@uide.edu.ec

Estudio de caso de la fase II en Haití de la educación para todos del banco

mundial

The world bank’s education for all phase II in Haiti case study

Andrés Chávez

Universidad Internacional del Ecuador, Ecuador

Nyoka Joseph

Columbia University, Estados Unidos

Leonardo Franco

Columbia University, Estados Unidos

Phineas Leng

Columbia University, Estados Unidos

Garvey Pierre

Columbia University, Estados Unidos

Autor para correspondencia: gnp2105@tc.columbia.edu, pwl2106@tc.columbia.edu,

lef2135@tc.columbia.edu, nj2166@tc.columbia.edu, anchavezer@internacional.edu.ec

Fecha de recepción: 10 de enero de 2016 - Fecha de aceptación: 17 de febrero de 2016

Resumen

Este estudio se enfoca en las metas establecidas en el programa Education For All

Phase II y en el trabajo que el Banco Mundial ha realizado para poder alcanzar las metas para

Haiti. Esta investigación analizara Calidad en la Educación, El fortalecimiento Institucional y de

Gobierno, y las Nuevas Tendencias en Educación Internacional y Desarrollo.

Palabras claves: banco mundial; education for all; haití, reformas educativas

Abstract

This study focuses on the established goals of Phase II of Education For All and the

work that World Bank has done in order to reach these goals in Haiti. This research will analyze

Quality of Education, Institutional Strengthening and Governance, and New Trends in

International Development Education.

Key words: world bank; education for all; haiti; education reforms

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Introduction

As the largest donor in international educational development, with three billion dollars

of annual loans, the World Bank leads the international educational development field

(Heyneman, 2003). Being the largest donor allows the development bank to drive the

development discourse, making it an ideal choice to analyze for a case study. The decision of the

group to narrow the focus on Haiti is driven by a number of factors. It is the poorest country in

the Western hemisphere and it has experienced one of the largest natural disasters in recent

years. Added to this is the fact that 60 percent of the population lives in rural areas and between

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0-85 percent of primary schools are private. This has attracted donors and NGOs to converge on

the country making it a fascinating context to study. This case study presents an analysis of the

World Bank’s involvement in Haiti as part of the Education for All (EFA) Phase II initiative.

First, the paper will offer a brief historical context of educational development in Haiti followed

by an analysis of the biggest challenges it currently faces. Consequently, the study will discuss

and outline the key policies of EFA Phase II relating to access to education, increasing the

quality of education, building institutional capacity in the education sector, and monitoring and

evaluation. By using information obtained from extensive interviews with World Bank

employees and other NGOs working in Haiti this section of the paper will analyze the progress

and current situation in relation to stated objectives. Following this, the paper will examine the

current and future trends shaping international educational development and the pedagogical

discourse in Haiti. The paper will conclude with some general observations found by engaging in

this case study.

Relevant history and context

The Republic of Haiti, located in the Caribbean, occupies the western one third of the

island of Hispaniola that it shares with the Dominican Republic. After gaining independence in

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804 from France, following a slave revolt, Haiti established itself as the first black republic in

the Western hemisphere. However, a long history of diplomatic and economic isolation, political

instability and social unrest has not only limited economic opportunity and growth but has

resulted in a loss of human capital (Carlson et al. 2011). For instance, the 2013 Human.

Development report ranks Haiti 161 out of an eligible 186 countries with an index of 0.456,

signifying real deficits in income, health and education. Carlson et al. (2011) argues that “the

most pressing priority in stimulating the development of Haiti is in the improvement of its

education system” (p. 5).

Previous Education Reforms

Two major reforms in the latter half of the twentieth century have attempted to orient

educational development in Haiti towards a modernized framework: The Bernard Reform of

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978 and the National Plan of Education and Training (NPET) in 1997. These reforms

collectively attempted to align the school structure with labor market demands, affirm the right

to education for all, introduce the Creole language as an official language of instruction along

with French, and make quality and student centered pedagogy a focus (Hadjadj, 2000). Although

creole was made an official language, when interviewing Moise Derosier, the Education Program

Director at Color of Hope, a non-profit grassroots community organization, he stated that there

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had been no real change in the pedagogy of the education system. He alluded to the fact that the

language of instruction continues to be predominantly French, which most children do not speak,

upon entering formal schooling and that asking them to think critically in a language they do not

speak is problematic (M. Derosier, personal communication, December, 7th 2013). More

recently, the 2008 Presidential Commission for Education in Haiti reform has three objectives

“100 percent enrollment of all school-age children, a free education to all, including textbooks

and materials, and a hot meal daily for each child” (Carlson et. al, 2011, p.16). Standardizing the

nationalcurriculum is also a major focus of this reform.

Education Sector

The challenges to the development of the education sector in Haiti is a combination of

continuous and historical struggles with political instability, social unrest, income inequality,

stagnant economic growth, migration of skilled and educated citizens, and most recently natural

disasters. However, political instability has impeded development at every level of Haitian

society. A legacy of authoritarian regimes, coup d’états, and foreign occupancies has made it

difficult for education reforms to gain traction, continuity and sustainability (Hadjadj, 2000; Diaz

et al., 2008). Many people interviewed for this case study reiterated the challenges associated

with political instability. A World Bank Official, Senior Operations Officer at the World Bank is

quoted as saying that “the most challenging thing is to ensure continuity, what political

instability brings is no continuity in terms of vision because the different minister can have

different priority and that is really really difficult because sometimes priority is not linked to

some analysis, it’s just because of some political interest” (World Bank Official, personal

communication, December 3rd, 2013).

The issue of quality basic education in Haiti has always been a challenge, but until

recently access was seen as the major obstacle. While school access has increased, due to the

availability of private schools, the quality of the education system has suffered because of the

lack of accreditation by some of these institutions (Wolff, 2008). Historically, access to public

education has been hampered by the state’s lack of investment and as a result the sector has

become increasingly privatized. A 2002-03 World Bank education census revealed that only

eight percent of Haitian schools were public, which left 92 percent of the market to be privately

owned and financed (Luzincourt & Gulbrandson, 2010). Ten years later, the experts interviewed

approximated that between 80-85 percent of the market was privatized, which implies movement

in a positive direction. It was estimated that before the 2010 earthquake public schools only had

the capacity to serve a quarter of the school age population, which meant that access to public

schools was competitive. Also, many school districts in rural areas did not have public schools

therefore limiting access to children whose families could only afford to pay for private school

(Carlson et al, 2011).

Many private schools are incapable of providing quality education, principally because

there is little incentive to do so. The overall absence of accountability, monitoring, evaluation,

and reporting standards set by the Haitian Ministry of National Education and Professional

Training (MENFP) was echoed. Luzincourt & Gulbrandson (2010) reported that 70 percent of

schools in Haiti lacked accreditation. The poor quality is also attributable to a lack of resources

(inadequate infrastructure, textbooks, desks, chairs, and teaching materials), poor management

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and organizational structures, and a lack of teacher training and qualified teachers (Hadjadj,

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000). The impact of poor quality education is reflected in indicators such as literacy rates,

dropout rates, repetition rates, completion rates, and the percentage of over-aged students (Wolff,

008).

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The World Bank’s Involvement in Haiti

Since 2004, the World Bank has assumed more of a leadership role through its support

for the Haitian Government in developing a national strategy for Education for All. Through

providing technical and financial assistance and helping to coordinate with other development

partners it aimed to “improve transparency and strengthen civil society” (World Bank, 2013,

p.1). The Bank’s support for educational governance reform led to the US$6.4 million LICUS

trust fund grant program, established in 2004 which “focused on improving public-private

partnerships in the education sector” (World Bank, 2010, p.3).

The implementation of the EFA Adaptable Program Grant Phase I in 2007, focused on

the implementation of the National EFA strategy concentrated on improving access and equity to

primary school. Through support of the EFA-Fast Track Initiative, the Economic Governance

Reform Operation (EGRO II) and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative that

provided debt relief, these other reforms also included education policy (World Bank, 2006, p.4).

Currently the Haiti EFA Phase II initiative in 2011 is active and aims to improve access, quality,

institutional capacity of the education sector, and monitoring and evaluation. Challenges as a

result of the 2010 earthquake have also led the Bank to follow up with projects focused on

disaster management (World Bank, 2013).

Challenges

Earthquake

On January 12, 2010, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti and caused significant

damages to the country. The earthquake’s epicenter was located around 17km west of Haiti’s

heavily populated capital, Port-au-Prince, leaving 1.3 million people displaced and 700,000

school children without access to school (Rivera, 2011). The Inter-American Development Bank

estimated that 200,000 people were killed and US$ 8-16 billion were lost in damages (Fund for

Peace, 2012). Haiti’s Education Cluster Performance Satisfaction Survey Report showed that, in

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012, there were still more than 300,000 people who remained in makeshift tents in camps, while

0 percent of debris had been removed, 56 percent of schools’ infrastructure remained damaged

or destroyed (Haiti Education Cluster, 2012).

Cholera Outbreak

In October 2010, 9 months after the earthquake, Haiti faced another disaster in the form

of a cholera outbreak. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that the Haitian Ministry

of Public Health and Population (MSPP) and the Haitian National Public Health Laboratory

identified the strain of Vibrio cholera on October 21, 2010 (CDC, 2011). This would be Haiti’s

first cholera outbreak in a century. As of October 17, 2013, the CDC reported 684,085 cases and

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,361 deaths, which have taken a significant toll on the Haitian population (CDC, 2013). It is

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important to note that the cholera outbreak was attributed to Nepalese peacekeepers since the

strain was not endemic to the island prior to their arrival. The United Nations has not accepted

responsibility for the outbreak despite criticism from independent researchers and human rights

activists.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

Three years after the earthquake, an estimated 350,000 people remain internally displaced

living in temporary housing placements around the Port-au-Prince area. It is difficult to deliver

education services to those individuals who have not found a permanent home. Elizabeth Ferris

and Rebecca Winthrop’s essay (2010) on the conditions of refugees and internally displaced

people highlights many of the challenges found in Haiti’s context. Ferris and Winthrop state “in

almost all post-conflict situations, the transition between humanitarian relief and development

actors is a rocky one. While humanitarian actors may judge that the emergency is over,

conditions are often too uncertain or insecure for development actors to launch large-scale

programs, including programs to restore formal education” (Ferris & Winthrop, 2010, Page 48).

The Haitian government, along with the World Bank and other partners, now understand the

need to work together beyond an emergency context in order for them to address the structural

challenges found in Haiti’s education system.

Institutional Challenges

With an annual GDP of US$673 per person, the Haitian population operates within

immense economic constraints and faces conditions of extreme poverty. After the earthquake,

the Haitian economy contracted by 5.4 percent in 2010 but was able to grow by 6.1 percent in

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011 due to reconstruction efforts. This surge in GDP growth was mainly due to a large influx

from donors who pledged a grand total of US$5.6 billion for 2010-2011. The authorities

anticipated an annual growth rate of seven percent for the next few years but the country’s GDP

turned out to be 2.8 percent in 2012. The country remains heavily dependent on international aid,

because of its unbalanced budget of $1.812 billion in revenues and $2.279 billion in

expenditures in 2012 (CIA, 2013). With these limited resources, the government ability to

function properly is severely limited. Rachel Hermes from Catholic Relief Services highlighted

the fact that there were three different ministers of education during her two years in Haiti (R.

Hermes, personal communication, December 5, 2013). With this high turnover of staff, Rachel

discussed some of the difficulties that she faced in helping the ministry with capacity building.

Moise Derosier, the Education Program Director at Color of Hope, also pointed to this turnover

issue as an obstacle to continuity and as a barrier for sound policy (M. Derosier, personal

communication, December 6-7, 2013).

Based on the UNDP’s (2012) International Human Development Indicators, Haiti’s

public expenditure on education is at 1.5 percent. The lack of investment in education can be

partly attributed to that fact that Haiti’s relatively small budget is not sufficient enough to make

significant investments in many of its public sectors in need. Over 50 percent of the Haitian

population lives on US$1/day and 78 percent live on less than US$2/day (World Bank, 2011).

With the average tuition cost at US$70 per child/per year, it is estimated that 400,000-500,000

children aged 6-12 were not able to attend school (World Bank, 2011). With the 80 percent of

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schools being private and a limited government capacity to provide educational services, many

parents struggle to enroll their children in schools. Jeff Ramin from the Global Partnership for

Education (GPE) attested to the fact that “there are quite a number of out of school children” (J.

Ramin, personal communication, December 8, 2013). Jeff also pointed to the fact that many of

the private schools are not offering the type of education quality that would serve the needs of

their students (J. Ramin, personal communication, December 8, 2013). He pointed to the

government’s inability to set national standards that can be easily enforced while also

mentioning the difficulties that the World Bank is facing in working on policy issues with the

Haitian government (J. Ramin, personal communication, December 8, 2013).

Coordination is one of the biggest challenges between the multitudes of actors on the

ground. Rachel Hermes from Catholic Relief Services explained how hard it is to know what

each organization is responsible for as she lamented the fact that “there are a lot of good

intentions and it does not always translate into coordinating efforts.” (R. Hermes, personal

communication, December 5, 2013). Axelle Latortue from the World Bank expressed similar

concerns as she highlighted an “active donor group” that holds bi-weekly meetings that are

meant to ensure that there are no overlaps in what people are doing (A. Latortue, personal

communication, November 25, 2013). Melissa Adelman also pointed to the multitude of actors

and a lack coordination as some of the main challenges that she faced while working in Haiti.

Paul Frisoli, an Education Technical Advisor, lamented the fact that the MENFP fails to drive

the actors on the ground in a way that would coherently direct the country’s policy (P. Frisoli,

personal communication, December 2, 2013).

In light of these institutional challenges, the Haitian government is starting to make stride

in funding their national budgets. A World Bank official said that the Haitian government has

started taxing international money transfers and international telephone calls as a measure to

raise revenues through which it hopes to increase its public expenditures (World Bank official,

personal communication, December 3, 2013). Furthermore, Jeff mentioned that GPE is working

on an actionable education sector plan with clearly defined priorities and budget to ensure

continuity regardless of the minister of education. While these are steps in the right direction, the

lack of institutional strength and stability remains a barrier preventing Haiti from improving its

educational system.

The World Bank’s Involvement in Education in Haiti

The World Bank’s involvement in Haiti has been both extensive and diverse ranging

from projects in agriculture, highway/transport, and energy all aimed at improving economic

development. The Bank’s focus on educational development began with the Basic Education

Project, which was eventually dropped, and then re-launched, with the Education Project in 1976

through 1991. Project IV of the V part Education Project in 1985 was the Bank’s first real

attempt at improving the quality of education and growth in educational coverage (Hadjadj,

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000).

The implementation of the EFA Adaptable Program Grant Phase I in 2007, focused on

improving access to primary school. Currently the Haiti EFA Phase II initiative in 2011 is active

and aims to improve access, quality, institutional capacity of the education sector, and

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monitoring and evaluation. Challenges as a result of the 2010 earthquake have also led the Bank

to follow up with projects focused on disaster management (World Bank, 2013).

Key policies for education for all phase II

Access to Education

Enrollment rates in public and secondary schools in Haiti are among the lowest in

the world. Seventy-six percent of children attend primary school, while only 22 percent

attend secondary school (World Bank, 2012). Eighty percent of children who are enrolled

in school attend private schools (World Bank, 2013). These non-public schools constitute

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5 percent of the schools in Haiti; yet only 25 percent of them are registered in the Ministry

of Education’s official database (M. Derosier, personal communication, December 6-7,

013). The fees associated with private schooling make it difficult for many families to

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enroll children in school. While the Haitian government spends an average of only 1.1 to 2

percent of its GDP on education, the remaining 7 percent is up to parents to pay if they are

to send their children to school (RAND, 2010). This is especially a problem because the

average Haitian family has 4.5 children (M. Derosier, personal communication, December

6

-7, 2013). Schools fees quickly become overwhelming for families at that rate. A major

obstacle to education in Haiti is the highly dense yet extensively dispersed rural population. In

004, it was calculated that approximately 60 percent of the population lived in rural areas, and

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these people live in “thousands of networks of very small villages, each within a walking

distance of 20 minutes to one hour” (World Bank, 2011a, p. 71). Most of these villages are

isolated due to a limited road infrastructure, and several rivers break up paths to access villages;

this acts as a barrier for school-aged children in rural areas to access education services.

There are, however, many community schools in Haiti; field visits have confirmed that

even in the most remote areas of the country, at least one out of every four villages has some

type of community school. For a while, these schools were receiving assistance from NGOs and

faith-based organizations, which led to high enrollment rates. However, when this aid was

withdrawn, parents of students were unable to pay for teachers’ salaries, and the majority of the

teachers were forced to move on. This left the schools in poor shape, though many of them were

able to remain open due to a small number of teachers who chose to stay and provide some type

of education. However, due to the decrease in teachers and the poor quality of education that

they were able to provide, enrollment declined sharply, and very few students continued to attend

these schools (World Bank, 2011a).

When Haiti returned to a democratic government in 2007, the World Bank funded the

Education For All Adaptable Program Grant in order to help with the transition. This program

was in effect until 2010; in 2011, the government of Haiti and the World Bank began the second

phase of EFA. By the end of the 2011-2012 school year approximately 170,000 children from

poor families were able to enroll in private schools because of the subsidies provided by this

program. The program works by giving schools US$90 per child, and requiring schools to

commit to “have a minimum number of qualified teachers and provide each beneficiary child

with three textbooks and a uniform” (World Bank, 2012, p.1). These subsidies cover most of the

expenses of the first six years of a child’s primary education; however, many poor families are

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still unable to send their children to school because they cannot afford educational expenses that

are not covered by the subsidy, such as additional textbooks and school supplies (World Bank,

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012). Additionally, it has been a common problem for schools to receive their payments late; in

some cases, schools have charged parents in order to remain in operation and then returned the

money to them when the subsidies arrived (Axelle). This clearly presents a problem for those

parents who are unable to provide funds for schools, even in a short-term situation.

EFA Phase II focuses mainly on quality in education, but it also addresses three main

components of access to education in order to continue to increase primary enrollment. These

components are eliminating school fees, increasing the supply of classrooms and teachers in rural

areas, and contributing to health and nutrition in the schools. The plan for attending to these

areas consists of increasing funding for the Tuition Waiver Program, improving basic

educational services in selected rural communities, and strengthening the Health and Nutrition

Program in the recipient schools (World Bank, 2011a, p.6).

The Tuition Waiver Program will receive an increase of US$31 million in order to pay

tuition for students in non-public schools and provide them with textbooks (World Bank, 2011a,

p. 7). This additional funding will help many more children to enroll in school across the

country. According to World Bank official, there are currently 1.5 million children in Haiti

receiving the tuition waiver. To support rural communities, US $7 million will go towards

building and rehabilitating schools in rural communities that have a lack of proper schools, a

minimum school age population of 25 children, and a minimum level of community organization

and school capital (World Bank, 2011a, p. 7). This will help to restore many of the failing

community schools in rural Haiti, as well as provide more accessible schools for children who

live in remote villages that cannot travel to school. An additional US$7 million will go towards

the support of the “consultancies with service-providers, and operating costs of the National

School Feeding Program. Service providers would deliver a morning snack and a hot meal daily

to participating schools” (World Bank, 2011a, p. 7). These meals are important because they

often represent the only full meal that children in Haiti eat during the day, and this provides an

extra incentive for parents to send their children to school. It additionally works to help their

performance in the classroom.

The World Bank focuses on private education in situations such as Haiti because “the

public-sector provision of education is highly inefficient and poor in quality. These deficiencies

reduce demand for education” (Alexander, 2001, p. 309). Additionally, public education is often

just as biased against families in poverty as private education, so providing access to education

for children from these circumstances often requires subsidies. According to World Bank

official, many government officials in Haiti own private schools, so there is little motivation for

them to fix the public education system. This represents a conflict of interest and has been an

obstacle to progress in the project. However, it is the duty of the government to provide free,

compulsory education for all primary age children to the best of their ability. Providing subsidies

for poor children to enroll in private schools does not constitute a truly free education because it

is dependent on external support. Therefore, the government of Haiti should focus more on

improving the public education sector so that enrollments can increase in that area as well. In

that way, children across the country can have access to education regardless of being chosen for

a tuition waiver. Additionally, critics of providing public funding to private institutions worry

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that this type of program can result in the segregation of students by income level and academic

achievement, due to the influence of socioeconomic and educational characteristics on parental

choice, and yield no improvements in academic achievement (Hsieh & Urquiola, 2006).

Quality Education

Pre-Service Teacher Training Programs and Monitoring and Evaluation

Component Two of EFA Phase II focuses on improving the overall quality of education

being delivered in Haiti. In order to do this, the World Bank aims to expand the number of

certified teachers by implementing and supporting pre-service teacher training programs.

Historically, in-service training has received the most attention in educational development by

international aid donors. Steiner-Khamsi states that “pre-service training is virtually donor free’’

(2007, p. 4) and according to Perraton (2000), initial training can be delivered in-service. This

type of training has increasingly been provided for teachers who have been recruited to meet the

expanding demand created by Education For All (Lynd, 2005). However it appears the World

Bank is moving away from an in-service method of meeting training demands for Phase II. In

order to create 1,200 certified teachers per year the program will provide one year of “intensive

institution based training” (World Bank, 2011a, p. 7) that will be followed by two years of

classroom based practical training. This will be done in partnership with teacher training

agencies in Haiti and is “based on current research-based methods of instruction in reading,

writing and mathematics” (World Bank, 2011a, p. 32). In addition, the program aims to improve

the “pedagogic content” (World Bank, 2011a, p. 7) of the Accelerated Teacher Training Program

(ATTP) that will be further improved in later years by student-teacher performance. Considering

the current global educational discourse, one would think that active learning is likely to be

central to teacher training and increasing quality. However, there is no explicit mention of this in

the World Bank literature on EFA Phase II.

Email communication with a World Bank official confirmed that the “program is not

specifically focused on introducing active learning pedagogy” (World Bank Official, personal

communication, December 3, 2013). A further interview with Moise Derosier confirmed that

these new pedagogies look at the foundations of how students learn and classroom management.

Somewhat surprisingly, there is a focus on how to improve rote memorization methods in

classrooms through the teacher training programs. Another interesting aspect that the interview

uncovered is the focus on Haitian Creole as a language of instruction. Along with French it is an

official language of Haiti spoken by the vast majority of citizens but according to Derosier, there

is a lack of political will to make it the main language of instruction in schools.

World Bank official also gave details and insights into the progress, effectiveness, and

challenges of the ATTP. When asked on what he felt are the main successes of the entire EFA

program he cited teacher training as the most prominent one. The pre-service teacher-training

program is churning out 1,500 new teachers a year and 3,000 trainees are expected to graduate in

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014. The accelerated teacher-training program has essentially reduced the amount of years it

takes to train teachers, enabling the government to meet the countries’ desperate demand.

However, according to a World Bank official70 percent of primary teachers that are currently

teaching are not properly qualified. One of the reasons for this is that the accreditation system in

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Haiti does not function properly. According to Jeff, the fact that 80 percent of primary schools in

Haiti are private makes it even more challenging to achieve quality targets. This is because

quality varies wildly from school to school due to the difficulty of enforcing one set of standards

across all schools. Jeff believes that it would be easier to do if the majority were public.

Therefore, the government has two paths before it: it can either attempt to increase the

number of public schools and decrease the number of private schools or develop an enforceable

set of standards. Unfortunately, Jeff did not give any opinion on which path is most likely.

However, a World Bank official did state in his interview that a number of ministry officials

personally own a number of private schools. This would suggest that there are personal interests

at stake so any change will most likely be met with resistance. One remaining issue cited by

World Bank official is that publicly everyone espouses the need to increase quality, and this

includes the Haitian government. However, ministers and school administrations need to actively

follow up on this ‘even if it means firing teachers’ (World Bank Official, personal

communication, December 3, 2013). This speaks to the need to nod just to create policy but also

to make sure it is implemented at every level, from the top to the very bottom.

After interviewing Axelle Latourte, an education specialist at the World Bank who

worked directly on the project in Haiti, there has not been a formal impact evaluation on the

project at the time of writing. However, some useful anecdotal evidence was offered that

provided some valuable insights that would generally be unavailable. For example, as with the

tuition waiver program there is a stipend involved with the teacher-training program. However,

payments are disbursed from the central government and regularly arrive late. Not only is this

discouraging for the teacher trainees, they rely on that money for transport to and from where the

training occurs. Despite this Axelle said that the teacher training programs are generally well

received and the teachers take pride in being a part of it. As stated by both by a World Bank

official and Axelle, putting pressure on the government to deliver is not an easy task. The World

Bank realizes the highly politicized climate it is working in but at the same time recognizes the

need of the Haitian government to meet its commitments. The World Bank does not have a

specific mechanism whereby they can exert ‘hard’ pressure on the government to meet its

commitments. Instead, ‘soft’ pressure in the form of constant dialogue and reminders by the

country and program directors is essential. In addition, EFA program managers need to be

constantly on the ground maintaining relationships with government ministers. However, a

World Bank official stated that this is sometimes a thankless task. As discussed throughout this

case study, institutional weakness is a significant issue in Haiti, for example there have been

three different education ministers in as many years. This means that each new minister has his

own political agenda to think about that may be in conflict with the EFA goals. Therefore, every

small detail needs to be negotiated. Furthermore, it can often be a struggle for World Bank

officials or other program managers to even meet with the education minister face to face,

instead they end up negotiating through a deputy. One extra tool that the World Bank does have

at its disposal to ensure that commitments are met is the use of conditionality attached to

budgetary support. The World Bank will offer funding to the Haitian government budget that is

not specifically earmarked but is in a more general way, helping make sure that payments can be

made on time wherever they are going.

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Monitoring and Evaluation Component

Monitoring and evaluation has gained more and more prominence in international

development projects in recent years (Bamberger, 2012). Fitting in with this “global results

based or performance based trend” (Schuh Moore et al. 2012, p. 4), the Bank has allocated US$6

million to strengthen MENFP’s monitoring and evaluation capacity. As already mentioned, there

has not yet been an impact evaluation at the time of writing. However, the World Bank continues

to provide support to the Haitian government to build capacity. As noted by both Jeff and Moise,

government capacity is very weak and building capacity remains one of the most significant

challenges they face.

Institutional Strengthening and Governance

The World Bank is allocating US$2 million for the two goals focused around institutional

strengthening and governance, through increasing the capacity of the Ministry of National

Education and Professional Training (MENFP) and strengthening the partnerships between the

public and private sector (World Bank, 2011a, p.8). Haiti’s 2009 Country Assistance Strategy

(CAS) identified the state’s inability to implement policies and deliver public services as a

function of poor governance. Since the private sector continues to fill the gaps in education and

play an integral part to providing services, there needs to be increased regulation and improved

coordination between the public and private sectors (World Bank, 2009, p.4). Many of the

experts interviewed echoed the similar sentiment that implementation of any program could be

better if there was full support from the government.

Increase the capacity of the Ministry of National Education and Professional Training

(MENFP)

In order to fulfill the first goal, the World Bank is teaming up with the Caribbean

Development Bank and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to support the

Education For All Program, which allows MENFP to provide subsidies that allow for greater

enrollment of poor children in private schools. These subsidies help to correct the problem of

inadequate teaching staff and give the government more control over the private sector, in spite

of its decentralized structure (Boak, 2009, p. 23). They also encourage private schools to become

accredited, as only accredited institutions are eligible to participate in the program (Boak, 2009,

p. 27). A World Bank official stated that it isn’t possible to have an improvement of quality

education without improving the accreditation system and that the Bank does offer support, but

only under the condition that accreditation is improved (personal interview, 2013).

Strengthen the Partnership between the Public and Private Sector

The second goal is being addressed through the creation of the National Education

Partnership Office (ONAPE) which is to be a decentralized administrative body run by the

Minister of Education that engages MENFP and non-public partners in collaborative

conversation, manages partnership between the private and public sectors in education, and

encourages the participation of private stakeholders in the implementation of programs and

policies regarding education (Boak, 2009, p. 19). ONAPE was created to “improve MENFP’s

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capacity, mandate and legitimacy to regulate schools and enforce standards…[and] pave the way

for a future compensatory role for the Ministry, as Haiti emerges from fragility, providing

widespread subsidies to non-public schools and reducing the burden of direct education costs on

parents” (Boak, 2009, p. 19).

The main priority at this point is to improve primary education by retaining all children in

the school system and improving the quality of the education system (Wolff, 2008, p. 8). The

private sector is extremely important in Haiti because it accounts for 80 percent of total student

enrollment (Wolff, 2008, p. 5). This sector has grown substantially over the last several decades

due to poor management of the public education system, in which “teachers are not paid on time

(

some have not been paid in over a year), the selection process is precarious, school directors

play little or no significant role, and there are few sanctions and little oversight” (Wolff, 2008, p.

). Due to this dynamic, it makes sense that public funds should be used to support private

5

institutions, and that the private sector should continue to provide cost-effective education

services with oversight, incentives, and accountability from the public sector (Wolff, 2008, p. 1).

Trends in international educational development

As 2015 approaches, the general trends in the international education development

literature are moving from solely focusing on access to also focusing on learning, yet this global

paradigm shift has not taken place without some criticism. This section reviews how major

multilateral donor agencies and development banks, such as UNESCO and specifically the Work

Bank are building consensus within the international community and leading this educational

paradigm shift. The section also examines several critiques of the sustainability of this global

framework for learning. The section concludes with the World Bank’s EFA Phase II Initiative

within the context of the educational landscape in Haiti and assesses whether the new global

framework for learning is practical and implementable.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Center for Universal Education at

Brookings’ Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF) stresses the importance of providing a high

quality education that encourages life-long learning, and augmenting and standardizing the

learning attainment data collection. In response, the LMTF developed a framework to promote

learning called the “Global Framework of Learning Domains” (GFLD) as the building blocks for

lifelong learning. The learning domains framework approach set by the LMTF expands on the

traditional concept of literacy and numeracy (see Figure 1 in the Appendix) by adding a set of

context-neutral competencies deemed as essential to prepare children and youth for their future

lives (UNESCO, 2013). In addition, these competencies function as a foundation that is built on

throughout a child’s educational career, whether in formal or non-formal education (UNESCO,

2

013). The LMTF presents seven recommendations to complement the framework, which serves

as a roadmap on how to systematically measure learning outcomes throughout the learning

process, and to gauge how a country is meeting its attainment goals. Central to the GFLD

framework is the creation of a measurement system, to contribute to greater flexibility, equity,

transparency, and accountability at the local, national, and international levels (UNESCO, 2013).

In similar fashion, the World Bank’s Learning for All education strategy exemplifies the

same global paradigm shift from access to learning, and focuses on measurements of attainment.

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The World Bank’s strategic priorities in education focus on strengthening education systems and

building a high-quality knowledge base in order to promote learning and facilitate economic

growth (World Bank, 2011b). Similar to the LMTF, the World Bank also redefined the concept

of education and loosely defined the “education system” to include all learning opportunities

within a society regardless of whether it is formal or non-formal (World Bank, 2011b).

Loosening the definition of an education system expands the role of accountability within the

World Bank’s strategic education framework by making all agents involved partners in sharing

the goal of promoting learning. In contrast, the World Bank plans to leverage its expertise and

focus on the generation and exchange of knowledge, and by providing technical and financial

support, they hope to establish strategic partnerships to assist education systems in cultivating a

learning environment (World Bank, 2001b).

While the World Bank’s Learning for All emphasize the need for quality life-long

learning experiences and the need for an effective measurement system, many critics question

whether the approach taken by the World Bank and other aid agencies in promoting “learning for

all” is in fact global consensus and not a rebranding of old World Bank ideas under the guise of

global partnership. Steiner-Khamsi (2012) reviews the Learning for All strategy formulation

lifecycle into a Development, Review, Approval, and Presentation phase (see Figure 2), and

questions whether the strategic plan is actually a collaborative effect, as she demonstrates that

the two most important phases where decisions are actually made, Development and Approval,

take place internally at the World Bank leading to what she calls “rhetorical harmonization”.

This lack of insight into the decision and agenda setting process is compounded by the fact the

World Bank serves as the reviewer, implementer, and evaluator of their own projects and often

time disseminating a solution with minor adaptations to reduce the transaction costs (Steiner-

Khamsi, 2012). In addition, by viewing the World Bank as a social system with a set of clearly

mandates and seeing its transformation from solely a lender to a “super think tank” that also

lends knowledge and technical assistance to recipient governments, it becomes evident that the

World Bank, as a generator of knowledge, has positioned itself in the center of the international

educational development discourse (Steiner-Khamsi, 2012). Furthermore, some critics argue that

the loosening of the “education system” definition permits multilateral aid organizations, like the

World Bank, to advance its agenda and infiltrate into the local policy conversation (Steiner-

Khamsi, 2012). Moreover, the trend in recent years has been for multilateral aid organizations to

converge and endorse the same international agreements, such as EFA and MDG, which use to

measurable student outcomes as the main gauge of effectiveness, resulting in an environment

where a few dominant multilateral aid organizations set the international educational

development agenda (Gita Steiner-Khamsi, 2012).

Also absent in the global framework that emphasizes learning through set of

contextneutral competencies, is the acknowledgement that each country poses a unique context-

specific challenge that might not fit into the new paradigm, and if overlooked may essentially

hinder the development process. At times, teacher policies and agenda set forth by the World

Bank in Washington, DC are in conflict with the research being done in the field, hindering their

effectiveness as was evident in teacher accountability funded project in Mongolia (Steiner-

Khamsi, 2012). Specific to Haiti, the World Bank’s EFA Phase II Initiative has funded the

Accelerated Pre-service Teacher Education Reform (Programme de Formation Initiale

Accelerée, FIA) in efforts to increase the supply of teachers, build institutional capacity, and to

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improve the adequacy and quality of teacher education (World Bank, 2007). The aim of the FIA

program is to supply teachers and expand quality education to the most disadvantaged in the

hope of making the education system more equitable. The emphasis of the FIA program on

teachers as a production input is a prime example of the EFA Phase II initiative in Haiti is

centered more on measurable student outcomes rather than a holistic approach to learning that

fosters learning and throughout the entire school system (Ginsburg, 2012). When interviewing,

Moise Derosier, voiced similar concerns with the accelerated approach, and suggested that in

Haiti an intense and ongoing teacher training and professional development that focuses on the

experience in the classroom to promote teachers’ capacity, so as not to exacerbate the lack of

quality by supplying teachers not adequately trained (M. Derosier, personal communication,

December 7, 2013).

Additionally, other organizations, such as Save the Children, have focused on the

contextual challenge of providing educational services to rural children in Haiti by implementing

the Community School model to increase local capacity and allow communities to play a central

role in providing education that meets their community needs (Center for High Impact

Philanthropy, 2010). Although the post-2015 has already begun to take shape and trends seem to

suggest that the focal point of the dominant discourse has shifted from access to access plus

learning, yet it is also imperative to not lose sight of the unique contextual challenges each

development environment faces country when implementing programs such as the World Bank’s

EFA Phase II initiative.

Conclusion

Despite the lack of existence of an impact evaluation, it appears that EFA Phase II is

making good progress in reaching its set objectives. However, the World Bank is faced with

numerous challenges. Political instability significantly hinders progress due to the high turnover

of government staff. In addition, personal political agendas dominate within the educational

sector hindering serious progress because EFA goals are not prioritized. In addition, better

coordination between NGOs and international aid organizations is necessary to minimize the

duplication of tasks and make sure expertise is leveraged. As stated by a World Bank official,

real political change in Haiti is desperately needed. Linked to this is the fact that institutional

capacity, such as the accreditation system, is very weak in Haiti. Furthermore, significant

educational sector analysis has not been carried out and this, combined with no data since 2003,

makes it a very challenging environment to work in. For example, the Haitian government often

wants hard data to support policy decisions yet the data is not there. There does exist a sector

plan but it is not narrow enough in focus therefore the government really needs to prioritize and

streamline its activities. On the positive side, perhaps unsurprisingly, all of the World Bank staff

we interviewed feels that they are making an impact in Haiti. Their work is being well received

on the ground and they are positive about the future.

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