The state of education in Haiti isn't just suffering at the elementary and secondary levels. A high concentration of the colleges and universities could be found in Port-au-Prince, which is the area most devastated by the earthquake. Students were unable to return to the damaged and destroyed academic buildings.
According to a report conducted by Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED), the earthquake destroyed 28 of the 32 major universities. It also killed almost 200 professors and school administrators and anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 university students.
Before the quake, the higher education system lacked qualified professors and sufficient teaching and learning resources. In addition, a little over half of the universities didn't have government accreditation.
So what's a nation to do? Most say that the whole education system needs to be reconstructed under the guidance of a regulatory body. This would eliminate the overconcentration of schools in the capital that existed.
In addition, many feel that the country should invest money in professionalizing the State University of Haiti, which is the largest of all the universities. This would be highly effective because producing skilled workers is the first step towards economic stability in Haiti.
And how are skilled workers produced? By educating them, of course.
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