Doha, 04 April 2022

By Ashraf Siddiqui

Minister of National Education and Vocational Training of the Republic of Haiti, Nesmy Manigat has expressed his gratitude to Qatar’s leadership, particularly the Education Above All of Qatar Foundation, for its valuable support of a six-year primary education for nearly 32,000 Haitian primary school students.

In an exclusive interview with the writer on the sidelines of the recently concluded Doha Forum, the minister said his country is seeking financial assistance from the United Nations to rebuild its country following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake last August 2021, which resulted in the damage of thousands of homes and over 1,200 schools, as well as large student displacement.

He said that his visit to Qatar for the Doha Forum was extremely fruitful in a variety of ways. He praised the organisation and quality of the conference hosted by the State of Qatar, especially since the world is still recovering from the devastating effects of Covid-19 pandemic.

He added that the Doha Forum was an important platform that allowed him to meet and exchange ground experiences in the education field with a number of world’s high calibre academics, think tanks, experts, and those facing similar challenges as Haiti.

In terms of education cooperation, the Haitan minister said that he had fruitful meetings with His Excellency the Minister of Education of the State of Qatar and the President of Qatar University during his visit to Qatar.

He mentioned that he discussed the severe challenges that Haiti’s large youth population is facing, as well as the possibilities for collaboration in their development and vocational training.

He also hoped that Haitian students would be able to benefit from Qatar’s scholarship programme for higher education.

Furthermore, the Haitan minister said that he was very impressed with the quality of facilities and education in Qatar and observed a large number of Qatari youth, both men and women, working in all sectors.

Manigat visited Qatar for the second time since 2015 and stated that he was impressed by Qatar’s rapid growth and development, and that Haiti would like to learn and collaborate on joint projects from Qatar’s experience, particularly in the development of human resources, teachers, and vocational training programmes.

According to the Education Minister of the Latin America country, 70 percent of the country’s large population is made up of young people, which is a great human resource and a dividend for a country like Haiti; however, due to a lack of financial resources with the government, nearly 80 percent of students are forced to obtain education from the private sector.

He concluded by saying that Haiti is looking for friends to assist them in the education sector so that they can reduce poverty, provide social justice, and maintain the country’s stability..