From 959 to 1,600: tracking Haiti’s school closures in 2025

The Global Education Cluster reported 959 school closures at the end of January 2025. By late April, a United Nations briefing described more than 1,600 schools closed and more than 243,000 children whose learning was disrupted.

What the reporting tells us

These figures do not mean the same children were out of class on every day of the period. Closures, relocations and access change with local circumstances, and the ability to document an affected school can vary as conditions deteriorate.

What is unmistakable is the scale of the problem. A rise in closure reports means additional pressure on host schools, displaced households, teachers and local education systems.

Follow the students, not only the buildings

A useful response tracks where children go when their school closes, how many lessons they can realistically attend and what barriers prevent a return. It also considers displaced teachers and schools that have become collective shelters. The numbers are a prompt for careful planning, not a substitute for speaking with families.

What can help

For educators and supporters, useful next steps include asking which students are not attending, identifying the precise lessons missed, and coordinating accessible materials with local teachers. A response is stronger when progress can be checked over time, instead of measuring success only by the number of items distributed or events held.

A school’s status can change faster than a national statistic. Compare this chapter with our subsequent reporting on closure figures, relocated families and the kinds of school investments that may help learning resume.