Haiti - Education : First day of exams under tension
According to information received from the various Departmental Directorates of Education (DDE), apart from a few isolated incidents quickly controlled by the Ministry of Education, especially in St-Marc where protesters broke into test centers and tore copies of the candidates. However, they were able to undergo without difficulty the experimental science exams in the afternoon. In Port-au-Prince, the exams were held without major incidents with the exception of shots heard near the high school of young girls causing a panic within the institution. Very few cases of absence of students have been identified.
The Ministry of National Education thanked the educational community and the population for the "smooth running" of this first day of state examinations and invites all the actors to maintain this same mobilization and citizen watch in order to complete the whole operations relating to state examinations.
For his part, following the tensions that reigned Monday on the national territory, Michel-Ange Gédéon, Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) reminded his troops in a note "On the occasion of the organization the 9th fundamental year examinations scheduled from 24 to 26 June 2019 throughout the national territory and the various demonstrations planned by certain sectors of national life in the circumstances, the Directorate General of the PNH reminds responsibles of all the specialized units, in particular those engaged in the maintenance of order, the obligation to take all the necessary measures to ensure the peace climate conducive to the proper conduct of the examinations."
Concerning the demonstrations announced during this period of examinations, Gédéon, increases and specifies that "Only the units of order maintenance are called to manage the movements of protest" and that all the measures will be taken to guarantee the security and reinforce inter alia the control and safety of examination seats.
