$Unique_ID{COW01570} $Pretitle{364} $Title{Haiti Chapter 6A. Education, Cultural Life, and Public Information} $Subtitle{} $Author{Thomas E. Weil} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{primary schools school rural percent education urban secondary students years} $Date{1973} $Log{Table 1.*0157001.tab } Country: Haiti Book: Haiti, a Country Study Author: Thomas E. Weil Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1973 Chapter 6A. Education, Cultural Life, and Public Information Haiti's dual culture-which has been a prominent feature of the society since the colonial period, has been perpetuated in part by an educational system geared primarily to the needs of the French-speaking elite. Few of the approximately 90 percent of the population who speak Creole (see Glossary) have achieved literacy. The low literacy rate, in combination with a political climate generally less than conducive to free expression, has retarded the development of the communications media. Despite these and other handicaps, however, literature, painting, and folk music have developed strong traditions. In the early 1970s the predominantly urban secondary-school enrollment remained small but was growing at a rapid rate. The rate of growth of primary schools was lower than that of the school-age population, however, and the number of students in the country's one university, the University of Haiti, was lower than it had been a decade earlier. The country's literacy rate was among the lowest in Latin America; the rate of attrition at all levels of schooling was very high; most of the schools were located in the cities and towns, where only a small fraction of the population resided; and children often commenced school so late that the enrollment of teenagers in kindergarten was commonplace. The high value that people place on education is illustrated by the fact that Port-au-Prince students from homes lacking electricity are frequently seen studying under street lamps and by the relatively large number who seek higher education abroad. Improvement of the educational system is, however, hindered by a variety of factors. Rural and urban schools are the responsibilities of different secretariats of state; the predominantly rural character of the population exacerbates the problem of providing an adequate number of schools; and the low level of national income severely limits the amount of money that can be devoted to development of the program. Of equal or greater significance, the curricula are for the most part based on the French cultural pattern, which has little relevance to the needs and interests of most of the population; and instruction is in the French language, which is spoken and understood by only a small minority of the people. The nature of the abundant outpouring of folk expression has not changed much since the colonial period. What has changed, and in the process has introduced Haitian culture to the international community of patrons of the arts, has been the attitudes and interests of the country's intellectual elite. Despite a national market severely limited by poverty and illiteracy and a political climate that has fluctuated between anarchy and tyranny, Haiti has always had a distinguished intelligentsia-one that has included many prolific writers. In fact, it has been estimated that on a per capita basis the country's writers are accredited with more book titles (many of them published in France) than any other country in the Western Hemisphere except the United States. The cultural products of the elite of the nineteenth century were often of high quality, but they were essentially an extension of French culture. The recognition and cultivation by artists and scholars among the elites and the incipient middle class of a culture distinctively Haitian was catalyzed, ironically, by the humiliation of the United States occupation (1915-34). The experience gave rise not only to a search for a new national identity based on pride in the Negro race and the African heritage but also to the first powerful literary expressions of social consciousness and protest. The new trends in content were accompanied by increasing use of Creole and creolized French (see Glossary), although there is no standardized written version of the language and it has rarely been taught in Haitian schools. The renaissance in literature that gathered momentum in the 1920s and 1930s was followed in the mid-1940s by the initiation of the primitive art movement, which in less than a decade had won international acclaim. Self- taught painters such as Hector Hyppolite and Wilson Bigaud-inspired by the voodoo religion's fusion of the natural and the supernatural and uninhibited by the academician's emphasis on linear perspective and other rules of naturalistic representation-introduced a truly innovative form of graphic storytelling. The noted critic of Latin American art, Leopoldo Castedo, commented: "The Haitian primitive painter is above all a narrator, less concerned with reproducing his vision of the world than with evoking and event by means of concrete symbols." Although the style of each painter has been highly individualistic, the movement as a whole has been characterized by inventive use of brilliant color and intriguing detail. Music is the most nearly universal expression of the character and temperament-the pleasures, pains, and preoccupations-of the Haitian people. For the most part Haitian music is African in origin, and even secular and formal compositions are often adapted from, or inspired by, voodoo ritual music. Drums are the basic instrument, and dances tend to be uninhibited. The meringue, shared by all classes in the urban areas, is a typical musical form throughout the Caribbean region, but there are dozens of folk dances, popular in the rural areas, that are uniquely Haitian. Because circulation of the principal newspapers is confined almost entirely to the Port-au-Prince area and because the country's single television station is received only in that area, the mass medium that reaches more people than any other is radio broadcasting. The government operates one station with several transmitters; a number of stations are operated by Protestant missionary groups; and the balance are commercially operated. Broadcasts are made in both French and Creole, and programs feature music and official releases. Although the constitution guarantees freedom of expression and there is no precensorship, the press, radio, and television usually avoid publishing or broadcasting any material that might offend the government. Freedom of expression is thus limited by self-imposed censorship. Education Education in Haiti had a late start. During the colonial regime, schooling had been limited to the French elite to such an extent that the first chiefs of state in the independent country were illiterate. In the second decade of the nineteenth century, the country's first high school was established by President Alexandre Petion; in the early 1970s it still existed as the Lycee Petion Port-au-Prince. A comprehensive system failed to develop, however, and the emerging elite who could afford the cost sent their children to school in Paris. Educational development passed a milestone in 1860 when the signing of a concordat with the Vatican resulted in the assignment of additional teaching clergy to the young country. Education had already been largely an ecclesiastical function, but the arrival of additional priests further emphasized the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. The new priests were, for the most part, French, and they were motivated to further a rapprochement between Haiti and France. In this atmosphere, the clerical teachers concentrated their efforts on the developing urban elite, particularly in the excellent new secondary schools, where Haitian students were made fully aware of the greatness of France, the backwardness of their own country, and its lack of capacity for self-rule, Virtually no schools of any sort were established in the country side. The effort to draw Haiti into the French sphere of influence was abandoned shortly before 1900, but it left a heritage in which education remained in large measure a system in which the clergy taught members of the upper class. Only a few went into the interior to teach the peasants. During the 1920s, under the occupation by United States Marines, a considerable number of farm schools were established in which peasants could learn to read and write and could receive practical instruction in agriculture. These units were later absorbed into the regular primary system. The occupation authorities also were instrumental in establishing schools for vocational training in the larger urban areas, but the program was unpopular and collapsed even before the withdrawal of the marines in 1934. During more recent years, the principal benchmark in educational progress has been the establishment in 1944 of the University of Haiti, which was formed from several preexisting academic faculties. A characteristic of the educational system during the years after World War II has been the plurality of its direction. No single government agency has had full charge of the public program, and at both primary and secondary levels religious and secular private schools have played an important role. Most of the urban public educational program is under the direction of the Secretariat of State for National Education, but rural primary and secondary schools are functions of the Secretariat of State for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, and other secretariats have responsibility for certain specialized forms of schooling. The country is divided into twenty-four school districts, but the geographical-if not the functional-centralization of the program is underlined by the fact that laws and regulations concerning national education make no reference to local boards. Private education in the late 1960s and early 1970s continued to play an important role, but the extent to which the central government subsidized privately operated schools blurred the line of division between public and private education. At the primary level, for example, in 1967 a little less than half of the primary enrollment was in schools operated by the government and referred to as lay public institutions (publiques laiques). Most of the remainder was divided between church-operated but state-supported presbyterial schools and private institutions that were supported by tuition charges and contributions. The presbyterial schools, and some of the private ones, were operated by Roman Catholic orders and Protestant denominations. The Protestant groups were particularly important in rural areas where they maintained the mission primary schools, which in 1963 had an enrollment of an estimated 10,000 children. During the same year nearly 40 percent of the secondary students were in private institutions. The small secondary school enrollment (about 10 percent of the primary school enrollment during the 1960s) does not include students in church-operated but publicly financed institutions in the public school sector comparable to the presbyterial primary units. During the 1960s, however, private education received public subsidies equivalent to about 10 percent of the funds allocated to public schools. Some of the best private institutions are parts of conglomerates that offer a complete range of education from kindergarten through the secondary level; these schools draw their student bodies from the children of the elite. Others operate for profit, are of inferior quality, and function in rundown urban properties under the direction of teachers who are themselves barely literate. Public schooling is free at all levels, but textbooks must usually be purchased. So few are available and they are so lacking in variety that, at both primary and secondary levels, rote learning is the rule. Textbooks from France are used fairly extensively, and the Christian Brothers of Canada have published some texts designed for Haitian use; but there are few history or geography books written by and for Haitians. Haitian history and literature were not taught extensively before the regime of President Francois Duvalier, who produced the book Oeuvres Essentielles (Essential Works), which is used as a text at all levels. Primary Schools The primary school enrollment was officially estimated at 300,000 in 1970. Incomplete but more detailed data for 1967 quoted a figure of 255,152, including 112,291 girls (see table 1). In 1971 the Inter-American Development Bank cited 23 percent as the most recent estimate of the proportion of children in the five- to fourteen-year-old age bracket enrolled in primary classes and noted that the annual increase in numbers enrolled was at a rate lower than that of the population growth. Other data indicate that the rate had been somewhat higher-24.5 percent-in 1961 but that the rate during the census year of 1950 had been much lower-15.5 percent. [See Table 1.: School Enrollment in Haiti, 1967] Primary education is compulsory by law, but exemptions may be granted for a variety of reasons; and the lack of a nearby school precludes attendance in many rural localities. The regular primary course consists of six grades, but it is preceded by two years of kindergarten (enfantin), which is heavily attended. Kindergarten is ordinarily offered in the primary schools and are counted statistically in the primary enrollment. Primary school proper consists of preparatory, elementary and intermediate cycles, each of which lasts two years. Promotion between grades is based on final examination marks combined with class marks recorded in trimesters; and at the end of the sixth year a graduation certificate (certificat d'etudes primaires) is awarded. Students receiving this award may take examinations for entry in secondary school or may continue for three years of higher primary school leading to an elementary certificate (brevet elementaire). Accordingly, it is possible for the student to take two years of kindergarten, six years of primary school, and three years of higher primary studies for a total of eleven primary years. The rate of attrition is severe. In 1967 almost half of the primary students were enrolled in the two kindergarten grades, 18 percent were in the first grade of primary studies, and approximately 2 percent were in the sixth and final grade. The official statistics from which these percentages were derived did not include enrollment in the higher primary grades, but data for 1963 show about 1 percent of the primary students to have been in the higher cycle. Accordingly, it appears that a considerable proportion of thosecompleting the regular primary school choose to enter upper primary grades rather than to go on to secondary school. The school year commences in October and continues into July, with two-week vacations during the Christmas and Easter seasons. Slightly less than half of the days of the year are attendance days. In rural areas the school hours are from 9:00 A.M. to 11:30 A.M. and from 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. The urban school hours are from 8:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. and from 2:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. Urban schools are modeled on the French pattern and provide the groundwork for classical studies at the secondary level. In theory, the rural system reflects the influence of the United States and endeavors to adapt schooling to the needs of rural life. In practice, however, its curriculum is similar to that of the urban schools, except that practical courses in agriculture and home economics are included. Enrollment is growing at a much faster rate in urban than in rural establishments. In 1950 the number of children attending rural schools somewhat exceeded the number in urban ones, but in 1967 the urban enrollment exceeded the rural by a proportion of more than three to two. In addition, urban expenditures per student have been higher; during the 1963-67 period they averaged G86 (5 gourdes equal US$1) as compared with G59 in rural localities. Although during the 1960s girls slightly outnumbered boys in the urban classrooms, in the countryside boys were in a majority of more than two to one. Dropout rates, excessive throughout the system, tend to be much higher in the country than in town. In 1967 about 31 percent of the urban and 60 percent of the rural students were in kindergarten, and a little less than 5 percent of the urban and slightly more than 1 percent of the rural students were in the sixth grade. Many of the rural primary units, however, did not offer the full primary course. In addition, attendance is better in town than in the country. Recent data were not available in 1972, but in 1956 it was calculated that about 88 percent of the urban children enrolled regularly attended classes; in rural schools the regular attendance rate was about 76 percent. Repetition rates are high in both urban and rural sectors; comparative data were not available in 1972, but in 1960 some 48.3 percent of all primary students were repeating grades, 26.2 percent were new entrants, and 25.5 percent had been promoted. In addition, many do not begin school until relatively advanced ages. In 1967 approximately 283 beginning pupils, or more than 3 percent of the urban public enrollment in the first year of kindergarten, were ten years of age, and four individuals had reached the age of nineteen. The rural system is criticized because the schools are often poorly located in relation to the population to be served, a circumstance contributing to low attendance. In addition, the absence of local school districts and of parent organizations leave little opportunity for rural parents to learn that school is important. Probably the most significant deterrent to attendance, however, is language. An experiment in teaching in Creole, the rural language, was undertaken in the Mirebalais region of the Artibonite Plain, but it was discontinued; and in the early 1970s the rural as well as the urban classes were conducted in French, a language little understood in the countryside. As a consequence, school for many children was a bewildering and frustrating experience. The only institution not using French as the language of instruction in 1972 was the English-speaking Union School in Port-au-Prince. It is the stated position of Haitian educational authorities that full educational opportunities must be extended as quickly as possible to the rural population, but there is probably a conscious or unconscious reluctance on the part of many to create too great an increase in rural schooling too quickly; it could result in a corresponding increase in migration by an articulate peasantry to urban localities unable to absorb the flow. It appears to be the consensus of informed observers that the relatively slow pace of urbanization in Haiti is at least in part attributable to the low level of rural education. Moreover, so few children remain in primary school for a period long enough for them to learn and retain much of value that some educators believe that, in town as well as in the country, the limited available resources should be focused on ways to extend primary retention rates rather than on increasing enrollment. Secondary Schools In 1967 about 27,173 students were enrolled in schools of all kinds at the secondary level, an increase of about one-third over 1960. About 78 percent were in schools offering general or academic studies leading to university entrance. Over 21 percent were in vocational classes, and less than 1 percent were in normal schools. About 35 percent were girls, and 40 percent were in private schools. Secondary schooling is almost entirely urban; in 1965 only two of 105 secondary units in Haiti were located in the countryside. Students who have completed rural primary courses and wish to matriculate at the secondary level must find lodging in urban places. The government, however, offers a considerable number of scholarships (180 in 1961) to assist promising rural children in this respect, and some vocational schools have boarding facilities. Most of the rural students who do go to cities and towns to continue their educations remain there and swell the urban population; an undated study of the backgrounds of graduates of one Port-au-Prince vocational school revealed that although these students had originally come from various parts of the country, nearly all had remained in the capital city. The course of study in general secondary schools lasts seven years, divided into a three-year basic cycle and a four-year upper cycle leading to a baccalaureate (baccalaureat) and possible university matriculation. The upper cycle is divided into tracks: Latin-Greek; Latin-Science; and Science-Modern Languages. At the last level, the study of English is required. Although the curriculum has been broadened somewhat, it continues to place such emphasis on classics and the arts that the course of study in medicine at the University of Haiti includes a preparatory year consisting of courses in such subjects as physics, chemistry, and biology, which may have been omitted or insufficiently covered at the secondary level. Within the limits of its curriculum, however, the general secondary education offered in many of the schools is of good quality. Students who graduate usually are able to qualify for admission to the University of Haiti or to institutions of higher learning abroad. Graduates seeking to continue their studies in the United States, if their command of English permits, sometimes qualify for admission as university sophomores. Enrollment tends to be concentrated in the lower grades, although not so heavily as at the primary level. Attrition is most drastic in the last two years, when highly demanding final examinations exact heavy tolls. In 1967 at the end of the sixth or rhetoric year (rhetorique), 2,742 took the examinations and 786 passed. At the end of the seventh or philosophy year (philosophie), 532 of the 625 students who took the graduation examinations were successful. The size of the class in the philosophy grade was about one-tenth that of the entering class in the same year. The largest part of the enrollment in the vocational institutions is in the professional schools (ecoles professionelles), which teach industrial skills. They admit students who have completed the primary cycle and offer three-year courses leading to an industrial skills certificate (certificat d'aptitude professionelle). The courses can be described as corresponding either to the three-year basic cycle of general secondary education or to the three years of higher primary school. They therefore are sometimes considered part of the primary system. In 1967 the fourteen specialized skills taught included such fields as masonry, ceramics, and general mechanics. With the exception of a domestic-science school for girls, all of the institutions in this category are for males. Graduates of the domestic-science school can qualify for a primary teaching certificate after a year's advanced study. Students who have completed the basic cycle of general secondary schooling may enroll in four-year vocational courses in commercial subjects, hotel work, or catering leading to certification. In addition, a two-year course in surveying is open to students who have completed five years of general secondary school. The professional schools are all in the public sector. Their teachers are fairly well trained and compare favorably with those of the general secondary system. A large percentage of those trained in one craft, however, are reported to have found jobs only in another, or they have been unable to find employment because of a lack of available positions in their field of specializations or because employers prefer to train their own workers. Most of the enrollment in commercial courses is in private schools of varying quality. In many of them the teachers are poorly paid, and the instruction tends to suffer as a consequence. A large majority of the students are girls. The instruction consists principally of the teaching of office skills, and the increasing number of young women seeking to become bilingual secretaries who go abroad to Jamaica or elsewhere for their training has been reflected in a generally downward trend in commercial enrollments. The rudiments of gardening and agriculture are taught in rural primary schools, and the Secretariat of State for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development offers some agricultural courses at the lower secondary level. These latter courses are not considered part of the regular school system, however, and enrollments in them are not included in the school enrollment statistics. Two normal schools at the secondary level train urban primary teachers; two others prepare teachers for rural employment. Their modest collective enrollment of 222 in 1967 included a small majority in the urban schools; women constituted a small majority in the urban units, and males were in a better than two-to-one majority in the rural units. The general rule is that normal-school admission is limited to those who have successfully completed the general secondary cycle and that the regular course has a duration of three years leading to a teacher's certificate. A fourth year of practical teacher training is offered those who apply for it and carries with it a higher opening salary. Performance records are few, but in 1961 it was calculated that about one-third of the original matriculants obtained their teaching diplomas and that about one-fifth went on to obtain diplomas after the fourth year. Higher Education The University of Haiti (officially, but rarely in practice, denominated the State University of Haiti) was founded in 1944 by the merger of several faculties that had functioned previously as independent entities. Its oldest component is the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, founded in 1830 as the National School of Medicine. The university was originally autonomous, but in the 1960s it was made the responsibility of the Secretariat of State for National Education. A baccalaureate from a secondary school is required for admission, and some of the faculties require the successful completion of entrance examinations. University enrollments have declined in recent years, from 1,904 in 1956 to 1,227 in 1969. During the 1960s some 10 to 15 percent of the students were women. Dropout rates are high. The 140 students who took graduation examinations in 1967 (120 passed) represented about 9 percent of the enrollment. The university is made up of seven faculties in addition to the School of Higher International Studies. In 1967 more than 36 percent of the students were engaged in the study of law and business administration, 26 percent studied medicine and pharmacy, and nearly 17 percent studied education and letters. The remaining faculties had far smaller enrollments; less than 3 percent, for example, were engaged in the study of agronomy. Social sciences, engineering, and architecture are studied in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The Faculty of Education and Letters (previously called the Higher Normal School) provides both teacher training and courses of study in the fields of philosophy, modern languages, mathematics, and natural sciences. Curricula vary in length from six years in medicine (including one preparatory year and one year of internship) to five years in dentistry, four years in humanities and engineering, and three years in education, in pharmacy and in international studies. The several degrees offered in law require three years of study or longer. There is no university graduate studies program. The University of Haiti is the country's only postsecondary institution having university status. At the postsecondary level there are also several small private institutions, including a school of theology and law schools at Cap-Haitien, Gonaives, Les Cayes, and Jeremie. Degrees conferred by the law schools are recognized by the University of Haiti. The education offered at the postsecondary level is generally considered to be inferior in quality to that offered by the best secondary schools. As a consequence, children of the elite tend to seek undergraduate as well as graduate-level higher education in the United States, France, Canada, or Belgium. Educational authorities believe the principal problems of higher education that have been reflected in declining enrollments during the 1960s consist of a shortage of adequate facilities and a lack of qualified teachers. In terms of the interest of the economy, a still more important factor may be the continued overemphasis on the production of lawyers and the insufficient production of professionals in such needed fields of specialization as engineering and agronomy. Incomplete data available indicate that between 1945 and 1967 the proportion of students engaged in legal studies had not changed materially but that the already small proportion studying engineering and agronomy had undergone a sharp decline. The Teaching Profession Data with respect to the teachers are fragmentary, but in 1967 about 70 percent of the instructional staffs in the urban primary schools (other than higher primary and night classes) were women. In rural primary schools a little more than half of the public school teachers were men. Data were not available for rural private primary teachers. In secondary-level general classes nearly 90 percent of the public and about 70 percent of the private school teachers were men. In the vocational system, men were slightly in the majority in both public and private sectors. A large proportion of the teachers at both primary and secondary levels are members of Roman Catholic orders or Protestant denominations. Lay teachers, both public and private, tend to come from working-class backgrounds, particularly at the primary level. Upper-class men are reluctant to accepts employment in rural areas, and upper class women seldom are employed in any gainful capacity. Teaching is a respected occupation however, and represents at least a limited access to upward social mobility in a socioeconomic environment where few such opportunities are available. The lack of other employment opportunities for educated persons - some with university back-grounds-has resulted in a proliferation of small private schools of various kinds in Port-au-Prince. Teacher attrition, however, is severe. Salaries are low, and personnel, on the primary level in particular, find it stultifying to attempt to impart elements of a classical education in French the language that some of the urban and most of the rural students can neither speak nor read. During the early 1960s general secondary-level teachers in the public schools received an average of about G1,500 annually. The primary-level teacher received 10 to 20 percent less, and vocational school personnel received pay varying between the other two amounts. Private school personnel pay rates varied widely, both above and below the public school average: Secondary-level teachers in public schools frequently supplement their salaries by part-time employment in private establishments. Public school teachers receive small seniority wage increases at five-year intervals, and rural primary-level personnel receive wages slightly lower than those paid urban teaching personnel. Instructors in the adult education program are part-time personnel paid hourly at a rate equivalent to the national minimum wage of G5 per day. Primary teachers are drawn from graduates of the urban and rural normal schools. Secondary personnel should be graduates of the education program of the University of Haiti but may be appointed after successful completion of competitive examinations if they are graduates of general secondary schools. Most of the secondary teachers are reportede to meet the requirements, and a few have additional qualifications, usually acquired abroad. Primary personnel may be less qualified. Comprehensive data are lacking, but in 1961 less than 10 percent of the rural staff were reported to be qualified, and the number of new teachers graduated annually from the urban normal schools was barely sufficient to make up for natural attrition in the urban primary teachers' corps. More recent data on normal-school graduation are not available, but between 1961 and 1967 enrollments declined by nearly one-third. In 1967 all but twelve of the 207 persons engaged in teaching at the University of Haiti were men. The student-teacher ratio was nominally less than eight to one, but many of the teaching staff were professional people teaching on a part-time basis. A considerable number held advanced degrees from European and North American institutions of higher education. Professors are appointed by the president of Haiti, and lectures are appointed by the secretary of state for education; such appointments must receive presidential approval. Literacy and Adult Education In the early 1970s the adult literacy rate (persons fifteen years or older are considered adult) was estimated at a maximum of 20 percent and a minimum of 10 percent. The 1950 census had found it to be 10.5 percent; it had been estimated at 8 percent in 1914. The consensus of the estimates for literacy in the late 1960s and early 1970s was closer to 10 than to 20 percent, and, even at the highest estimate, literacy in Haiti was lower than in any other country of Latin America. The low proportion derived in considerable measure from a level of national income that made it impossible to devote massive sums of money to the literacy program and from the fact that Haiti was among the hemisphere's least urbanized countries. Basically, however, it was a reflection of the fact that the rural majority spoke Creole but had access to formal schooling only in French. In the early 1970s some adult education in Creole had commenced, but an alphabet for Creole had been approved only during the Francois Duvalier administration, and very little reading matter in it was available. As a consequence of the low rate of literacy, adult education has largely been a matter of teaching people to read and write. The earliest phase of the country's adult program took place between the early 1940s and 1951; about 13,000 persons received literacy certificates, and an additional 40,000 learned to read and write Creole according to the Laubach method, largely under guidance of Protestant mission teachers. The Creole students did not receive certificates because the government did not wish to encourage the Laubach method, which was not conducive to the learning of French. During the remainder of the 1950s an estimated 14,000 persons were made literate as a result of several small government programs. An orthography that would aid Creole speakers in learning and becoming literate in French was accepted by the government, and in 1961 the National Office for Literacy and Community Action (Office National d'Alphabetisation et d'Action Communitaire - ONAAC) was established as the principal public adult education agency, operated jointly by the secretariat of state for education and for agriculture but funded by the former. It received about 3 percent of the secretariat's budgetary allocations for the 1961/62 fiscal year. Early in 1972 it had an enrollment estimated at 120,000. The ONAAC receives assistance from voluntary associations, such as the Christian Service and the Haitian-American Community Help Organization. The continued low level of literacy makes it necessary that ONAAC devote most of its efforts to teaching people to read and write. ONAAC also, however, provides guidance in rural home improvement, in nutrition, and in the training of community leaders to give instruction in modern agricultural practices.