20677: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Attacking Education (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   CROIX DES BOUQUETS, March 22 (AP) -- A stack of warped Creole grammar
books rots in the sun. Graded tests, splintered school desks and the
twisted metal husk of a water fountain litter the floor.
   One classroom has completely disappeared, its wooden frame peeled off
board-by-board by looters who left only a chipped concrete foundation.
   The National Athletics School used to be one of Haiti's best public
academies until it was destroyed by gangs loyal to former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide hours after he fled the country Feb. 29.
   "Now there's nothing left," said Josue Charles, 21, one of several
students helping rebuild the school in this town of market vendors 10 miles
east of the capital, Port-au-Prince. "What they couldn't steal, they
destroyed."
   As life slowly returns to what passes for normal in strife-torn Haiti,
the daily routine for many students remains in tatters. More than half the
country's schools were closed after the uprising that left more than 300
dead and forced Aristide into exile.
   On Monday, uniformed boys with backpacks and girls wearing pink and red
hair ribbons filled the streets as most schools reopened for the first time
since the crisis started brewing in December.
   The disruption crippled an already moribund education system in a
country where more than half the 8 million people are illiterate and only
60 percent have access to schools.
   All told, at least 50 schools throughout Haiti were destroyed by
pro-Aristide gangs, according to the U.N. Children's Fund. An unknown
number of others were gutted by looters who took everything not nailed down
-- textbooks, wall maps, desks, even blackboards.
   In the capital, most schools closed for weeks, and attendance plummeted
80 percent at others where students were too afraid to return, according to
UNICEF.
   "They have all been witness to violence and murder and don't know what
will happen tomorrow," said UNICEF spokeswoman Francoise Gruloos-Ackermans.
"But we're confident things will improve."
   Another factor keeping down attendance is the schools' shortage of food,
causing a lack of incentive for many children in this impoverished nation
who receive their only daily meal in the classroom, she said.
   As tension starts to ease, U.S. Marines are doing patrols near schools
and officials are trying to fill classrooms, using radio messages.
   Among those who lent their voice to the campaign was Haitian-American
hip-hop singer Wyclef Jean, who recorded a song in Creole calling for
people to "put down the guns and pick up pencils and textbooks."
   "There's no need to be afraid, the schools will be secured," newly
appointed Education Minister Pierre Buteau said in a weekend radio address.
   Haiti's constitution calls for free access to education for all, but the
reality is far from that. A lack of government funding has left 85 percent
of schools in private hands, mostly religious groups.
   The National Athletics School, founded in 1995, was supposed to be that
rare success story, an all-ages academy where students could receive a
basic education and train for sports teams at virtually no cost.
   "The school was open to everyone. It has nothing to do with politics,"
said Cesar James, a 23-year-old student.
   In the courtyard, the words "Respect," "Discipline" and "Love of
Country" are neatly painted on a wall, not far from graffiti calling for
Aristide to be allowed to serve out the five-year term to which he was
elected in 2000.
   Inside one ransacked classroom, wires dangle from the ceiling where
light fixtures were ripped down, and piles of student files with photos and
academic records lay scattered about.
   "I never thought people could do something like this. They even burned
birth certificates," said 19-year-old student Ronaldson Joseph.
   Worried about missing an entire academic year, he is helping others
rebuild the school using some rusty saws, scavenged lumber and a few bags
of cement.
   Nearby, Pierre Armencier, 52, lined up a tape measure against a board as
he supervises the students' work. Asked why gangs would target a school,
the bespectacled father of a 14-year-old student could only shake his head.
   "The people who did this have no sense. It only hurts the community and
the Haitian people," he said. "We'll recover from this, but time lost by
the students is something we can never get back."