Between April 24 and 27, 2026, nearly 100 top-tier leaders from Haiti’s Ministry of National Education gathered at Villa Saint-Viateur, located in the hilly Turgeau neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, for a landmark Strategic Orientation Workshop. The assembled delegation included the ministry’s Inspectors General, departmental coordinators, technical directors, and departmental directors, all brought together to align on a shared path for the country’s struggling education system. During the workshop, Minister of National Education Vijonet Déméro laid out his comprehensive vision for Haitian education, walking attendees through the specific priorities he plans to guide the ministry toward over the coming months. Over three days of collaborative discussion, participants coalesced around three core pillars that require urgent attention: cross-departmental strategic alignment, standardized administrative management, and stronger leadership at all levels of the organization. The targeted framework is designed to streamline operations across both central and decentralized ministry structures, and boost the effectiveness of every policy and program the institution rolls out. Conversation also extended to a range of pressing systemic challenges, including gaps in the ministry’s existing legal and governance framework, inconsistencies in educational supply chains and quality control, operational bottlenecks within departmental education directorates, ongoing management issues at public schools, and the persistent underfunding that blocks the implementation of existing education policy plans. In his opening address to the cohort, Minister Déméro called on attendees to prioritize strengthening the Ministry of National Education’s organizational culture, which he argued must center shared, widely understood and respected values, operational standards, and work practices across all teams. He equally emphasized that the ministry’s existing organizational structures — including coordination offices, technical directorates, and departmental directorates — must evolve to establish a clear, robust chain of command with unambiguous operational guidelines. For the organizational restructuring, Déméro noted the new framework will prioritize placing qualified, competent professionals in positions of responsibility, empowering these leaders to act with flexibility while upholding institutional directives and order. The minister systematically detailed a full slate of upcoming policy and infrastructure priorities during the workshop, including the ministry’s draft Organic Decree, a new proposed decree governing school opening and closing protocols, reforms to teacher appointment processes, upgrades to the digital e-document platform for issuing and legalizing academic certificates and transcripts, plans for new public school construction, commitments to bring electricity and internet access to all public schools and departmental public universities, and a proposal to launch a new national Institute for Digital Education. Ministry Director General Osny Jean Marie and Chief of Staff Ecclésiaste Thélémaque also led working sessions focused on key operational topics, including the evolving role of Departmental Directorates of Education (DDEs), pedagogical supervision standards, mandated teaching hours for national primary and secondary schools, and reforms to national state examination processes. Multiple interactive panel discussions gave attendees space to debate high-priority issues the ministry cannot afford to delay addressing. Key topics of debate included updates to the ministry’s legal framework, human resources management reforms spanning recruitment, appointments, and internal transfers, upgrades to the Education Management Information System (EMIS), improved school infrastructure management, updated operations manuals for DDEs and high schools, a new practical guide for school administration, formal school accreditation processes, and the ongoing Good Governance Engineering project, a joint initiative between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Economy and Finance carried out through the General Inspectorate of Finance. By the close of the workshop, participating senior leaders had put forward dozens of actionable proposals focused on institutional strengthening for the ministry, accelerating the shift to digital administration, improving internal cross-departmental coordination, and raising the quality of public services delivered to students, families, and education workers across Haiti.