Haiti’s Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) has issued a new policy reminder to reinforce accessible public education across the country, updating and reaffirming existing rules on free schooling and regulated tuition for the 2026 academic year. In an official circular dated August 4, 2026, Education Minister Vijonet Déméro doubled down on longstanding commitments aligned with Haiti’s constitutional guarantees of a right to education and compulsory schooling, referencing the 2025 policy framework that first laid out these provisions.
The core of the new circular restates a total ban on any form of financial charges for early childhood education and the first two cycles of primary school across all public national schools. Under the new directive, no school administrator may demand or collect fees for registration, re-registration, school operations, student information documents, or learning materials from parents or legal guardians. The policy explicitly confirms that all public schooling for these grade levels remains fully free of charge for all Haitian families.
For the third cycle of primary school and all public secondary high schools, the circular introduces a strict cap on allowable tuition and fees to balance institutional operating needs with household financial stability. Public school principals are only permitted to collect a single, flat annual fee per student, which may not exceed 1,500 Haitian gourdes. The directive prohibits any additional fees of any kind from being charged throughout the academic year.
To ensure the funds collected are used for legitimate school needs, the policy requires that all fee revenue be allocated exclusively to facility maintenance, campus cleaning, basic infrastructure operations, and covering unbudgeted costs for teaching material development that are not covered by central ministry funding. Transparency requirements are also strengthened: every fee payment must be accompanied by an official receipt from a standardized receipt book, and full accounting records must be kept accessible for MENFP auditing teams at any time.
The ministry has emphasized that full compliance with these new rules is mandatory. Any educational administrator found violating the fee regulations will face severe disciplinary and administrative sanctions, aligned with existing civil service rules and MENFP internal policies. Departmental Directors of Education, school inspectors, and all regional administrative authorities have been given formal mandates to enforce these rules immediately, firmly, and across every region of Haiti, ensuring the policy reaches all public schools nationwide.