More than a million people will be taught to read and write in Haiti

Port-au-Prince, Oct 13 (Prensa Latina) More than one million people in Haiti will benefit from a literacy program that seeks to eradicate illiteracy, one of the scourges currently plaguing the Caribbean country.

October 13, 2025
09:18

Mozart Clerisson, the new Secretary of State for Literacy, confirmed October as the start date for a plan to teach 1.5 million people to read and write. This program will culminate in September 2026.

The allocated budget is US$20.8 million, according to the online newspaper Haiti Libre.

This is a major step forward for a country where more than 2.5 million Haitians are illiterate; the West department alone has an illiteracy rate of 34 percent, followed by Artibonite with 15 percent.

Plans are underway to ensure transportation for educators, and 50,000 trainers and supervisors will be trained.

“The more Haitians who know how to read and write, the more opportunities we will have to advance and move the economy forward,” Clerisson said, as quoted by the online newspaper Haiti Libre.

In 2001, Haiti implemented the “Yo si puedo” literacy method, an educational program developed by educator Leonela Relys in Cuba.

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