How Do You Haiti Moves, Haltingly, To Reopen Schools?
Officials Fear Teaching Won’t Resume Across the Hard-Hit Capital for Months, Extending Children’s Trauma No one knows how long children in those places will go without schooling. Many schools might not open until the fall, said Pierre Michel Laguerre, director general of Haiti’s Education Ministry. But with an untold number of children having lost one or both parents, and almost all needing a distraction from the horrors they have witnessed, resuming school has become an urgent priority. “It gives those traumatized children the feeling that life is back,” said Elisabeth Byrs, a United Nations spokeswoman, “and it helps.” There also is a longer-range imperative. “Haiti can’t have a future without educated children,” said Mr. Laguerre. “But there has been so much destruction, it’s a big and unprecedented challenge for us.” The education ministry and the U.N. on Monday plan to begin assessing the state of schools in Port-au-Prince, as well hard-hit areas south and west of the city, and ar
