Haiti Libre
 |
 |
On Friday, Pierre Josué Agenor Cadet, the Minister of Education, answered the questions raised by the Education Commission of the Lower House on the various recurrent problems affecting the Haitian education system (teacher strikes, student demonstrations, wages arrears etc…)
Recalling the Ministry’s debt of nearly 7 billion Gdes for the Free and Compulsory Universal Education Program (PSUGO) and the PRONEC the situation is not reassuring. Minister Cadet acknowledged that 2,700 teachers, holders of a letter of appointment work every day without pay and that 3,000 teach without status… but he ensures that as soon as the budget vote by Parliament the Ministry can respond favorably to the fair and legitimate demands of teachers and to put an end to the disturbances in the system.
But the minister’s revelations about teachers’ absenteeism in their workplace had the effect of a veritable bomb, when he said that nearly 10,000 teachers out of 24,000 in the Haitian education system, receive each month their salary while they are absent from their classroom… A situation which, according to him, would find its origin in the control of attendance in schools and the system of payment of wages, by automatic bank transfer.
Faced with this dramatic situation, the Minister indicated that his Ministry had already recovered almost 10 million gourdes in the year 2016-2017 in salary checks and that the measure was continuing, a positive step, which for now iis only a drop of water in the financial gulf of absenteeism…
Jude Alix Patrick Salomon, the Minister of Economy who accompanied Minister Cadet, did not hesitate to point the finger at those who use their influence to bring unskilled people into the education system, stressing that this discourages our international partners…
________________________________________________