While Haiti’s Constitution mandates free universal education, Haiti’s government currently is not financially equipped to achieve this promise. Nearly half of Haiti’s children do not attend schools and the country has a literacy rate of only about 53 percent. While the government supports a small number of schools, 90 percent of the schools in Haiti are operated by private entities, including religious institutions, NGOs and other international organizations. Fewer than 30 percent of Haitian youth graduate from 6th grade, which also causes a lack of qualified teachers.

The 2010 earthquake destroyed approximately half of the nation’s schools and affected the three main universities in Port au Prince (including a devastating loss in faculty and staff), forcing families to seek alternatives elsewhere. The Ministry of Education, itself, was left in rubbles and without leadership. In the year immediately following the earthquake, only 57 schools were rebuilt, according to the interagency education cluster.