Haiti – Good Shepherd International

Our focus at Good Shepherd Academy is on educating young Christ-Centered men and women with values and skill sets to positively transform their communities and the world.

Good Shepherd Academy provides access to quality education to youth living in poverty in Haiti. Our learning structure is designed to empower our students to explore the problems facing their communities and employ the fundamentals of teamwork to address these issues through love, care and service to others.

Key Challenges Facing Haiti’s Education

Low enrollment: Primary school enrollment is roughly 75 percent – an
improvement from earlier years but still low; an average Haitian, 25 years
or older, has less than 5 years of schooling. School fees can be
prohibitively expensive for low-income families.

Poor literacy rates: A U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID) early grade reading assessment revealed that roughly 75
percent of children at the end of first grade and nearly half of students
finishing second grade could not read a single word. Half of the adult
population is illiterate.

Lack of government oversight: Most schools in Haiti receive minimal
government oversight and are expensive relative to average earnings.
More than 85 percent of primary schools are privately managed by
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), churches, communities, and
for-profit operators.

Shortage of qualified teachers: Half of public sector teachers in Haiti
lack basic qualifications and almost 80 percent of teachers have not
received any pre-service training.

– United States Agency for International Development