Environnement, handicap, déficiences et pratiques pédagogiques en Haïti: Poser la problématique des infrastructures scolaires

Addressing the Issue of School Infrastructure

Abstract

In Haiti’s Grand Sud, the schooling of learners with disabilities unfolds within severely constrained physical environments, while national scholarship has often emphasized teaching practices and classroom interactions rather than the built setting itself. This article investigates the two-way relationship between school infrastructure, disability/impairment, and pedagogical practices, asking how the physical learning environment shapes learning and teaching and how everyday practices, in turn, reinforce environmental constraints. The study draws on an action-research approach (2018–2020) that combines a targeted document review with close-range field observations involving students, teachers, and school administrators across sampled schools in the South, Nippes, and Grand’Anse (including observations from 67 schools). Findings point to widespread deficits in basic services and facilities (high shares of schools lacking sewer connections, safe water, and electricity), alongside structural damage and “atypical” school buildings, which undermine accessibility, weaken learning conditions, and restrict teachers’ capacity to adapt instruction to diverse needs. The paper’s main contribution is to translate these diagnostics into an operational proposal: a standardized, inclusive school-facility prototype (classrooms, sanitation block, multipurpose space, basic standards) intended to support pedagogical continuity, inclusive learning, and territorially equitable education policy.