Graduation season looks different depending on where you live.
In the United States, a high school diploma is considered the baseline — the beginning of what comes next. In Haiti, earning that same diploma is one of the most extraordinary things a young person can accomplish. It is not the beginning. For many, it is the miracle.
We are not exaggerating when we say that.
The Numbers Behind the Struggle
Here is the reality of education in Haiti right now.
Only about 28% of Haitian students ever complete secondary school. That means nearly 3 out of every 4 children who start school will never walk across a graduation stage. More than 60% of all students drop out before they even reach sixth grade. Approximately 55% of youth leave the education system before the end of their sixth year of schooling — long before high school is ever even a possibility.
The causes are many: extreme poverty, political instability, security risks, under-qualified teachers, crumbling school buildings, and a language barrier in a country where Creole often prevails at home while French is required in the classroom.
And the crisis has only deepened in recent years. Armed gangs now control more than 85% of Port-au-Prince. In January 2025 alone, armed groups destroyed 47 schools in the capital. As of April 2025, more than 1,600 schools across four departments had closed, disrupting learning for more than 243,000 students.
More than half of all displaced Haitians are children — approximately 700,000 — with one in eight children displaced nationwide. Many of them are not in school. Many may never return.
In the middle of all of this, Teach Haiti students are graduating.
Six Years. Six Classes. 136 Graduates.
This August, we will celebrate our 6th graduating class in Port-au-Prince — 25 more students walking across that stage and into their futures. When they do, they will join the 111 graduates who came before them, bringing our total to 136 young men and women who beat the odds in one of the hardest places in the world to finish school.
We cannot put into words what that means to us.
Six years of standing in one of the most unstable, underserved cities in the Western Hemisphere and saying: these children deserve to finish. Six years of teachers showing up. Six years of students choosing their education over every obstacle placed in front of them. Six years of families sacrificing so their children could sit in a classroom, open a book, and believe in a future.
Every single one of those 136 graduates did something that the majority of Haitian children never get the chance to do. They crossed the finish line.
That is not a small thing. That is everything.
Why So Many Children Never Make It
It is worth pausing to understand what our graduates overcame, because the barriers to graduation in Haiti are not minor inconveniences. They are systemic, generational, and relentless.
Poverty is the first wall. Parents in Haiti spend an average of $130 every year just to send one child to school — and more than 200,000 children remain out of school entirely because even that is out of reach. When a family has to choose between school fees and food, school often loses.
Violence is the second wall. Children in Port-au-Prince must sometimes cross gang-controlled territory just to reach a classroom. In 2024, the number of children recruited by armed groups increased by 70% from the year before, and nearly half of armed group members were children.
Instability is the third wall. In recent years, unrest and gang violence have led to frequent and prolonged school closures, insecurity, and population displacement. A student can be on track for graduation and lose an entire school year to circumstances entirely outside their control.
And yet — 136 Teach Haiti students graduated. And 25 more are on their way.
Looking Ahead: St. Michel, 2032
In St. Michel, we are laying the groundwork right now for what will become another generation of graduates. We are planting seeds that will take time to grow — and we are patient, because we know what the harvest looks like.
In 2032, we will celebrate our first graduating class in St. Michel.
We are already proud of those students, even the ones who are still in primary school today. Even the ones who haven’t walked through our doors yet. Because we know what Teach Haiti’s Complete Education Model produces — young people who are not just academically prepared, but confident, spiritually grounded, emotionally resilient, and ready to lead.
St. Michel 2032 is not just a goal. It is a promise.
What Graduation Really Means
When a Teach Haiti student walks across that stage, they are not just receiving a diploma.
They are proving that poverty does not have the final word. That instability does not get to write their story. That a child born into one of the most difficult circumstances in the world can still achieve something remarkable.
They are showing every younger student still in our program what is possible.
They are becoming the leaders, parents, teachers, and community builders that Haiti needs.
We are so proud of our 111 graduates who came before, we are so proud of the 25 crossing the stage this August, and we are already counting down to St. Michel.
Your support makes graduation possible. Help Teach Haiti send more students across the finish! www.teachhaiti.org/sponsor-a-student.
Sources: UNESCO, World Bank, UNICEF, Education Cannot Wait, and the Global Partnership for Education.