Above: Henriette Moisset, Director of the Celie Lilavois School, helps a student with a speech to mark the inauguration of the new school buildings last year in Port-au-Prince. (UN Photo/Marco Dormino)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Inter-American Development Bank has announced the approval of a $50 million grant for education reform that Haiti launched in 2010.

The grant is aimed at providing support for an initiative to expand access to free, quality education in the country.

The IDB has offered support for a five-year plan with $250 million from its own resources, along with a drive to raise another $250 million from other donors.

Haiti’s Ministry of Education and its Economic and Social Assistance Fund are executing agencies of the new grant. IDB resources will also be used to finance the construction and equipment of 20 public schools in areas currently without educational services.

The grant will also back a school tuition waiver programme supported by the Haitian government, the World Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency and the Caribbean Development Bank, among other donors.

That contribution could help as many as 35,000 children to attend classes without paying tuition, along with paying for the cost of school kits and textbooks.