This is why surveys on access to education mainly focus on the number of children enrolled in schools, regardless of the context of their permanence and learning in these educational establishments. Public policies regulating the functioning of the Haitian educational system often neglect many aspects of the democratization of education, which should be one of the priorities of the Ministry of National Education (MENFP). Legally, in Haiti, the state is responsible for providing all school-age individuals with access to education, through redistributive policies in the form of services funded by taxes collected from the population. According to Article 32-1 of the 1987 Haitian Constitution: "Education is the responsibility of the state and territorial collectivities. They must make free education accessible to everyone and oversee the level of teacher training in both public and private sectors." This clause emphasizes the state's obligation to guarantee every school-age individual access to education, regardless of their social class, color, socioeconomic condition, performance, or intellectual capacity.

The idea of the state being responsible for education in Haiti did not begin with the 1987 constitution. Since 1804, after the proclamation of the country’s independence, the Haitian state invested in creating around six national schools to train the thinking minds of the young nation. Recognizing that development is impossible without investing in human capital.

Many authors link school with the construction of the nation-state, therefore, it is impossible to think of a state without a national school. In this context, Emile Durkheim defined the school as: an institution created by the state to educate, transmit cultural, moral, and social values to children of each generation to promote their socialization. This means integrating them into the social system, with the aim of ensuring social bonds and coherence in society despite differences in social categories.

It should be noted that these schools were selective and exclusive on two levels, as selection criteria were based not only on social class but also on gender. In 1807, King Henry Christophe, intending to promote an ideology superior to the slavery system, declared education for all children, leaving a legacy for former slaves. He stated: "Education is the only means to remove the masses from ignorance, paganism, and the degradation imposed by the slavery system." Despite the state's budget constraints, Christophe created public primary and secondary schools for boys while encouraging the private sector to establish schools for girls. It is important to note that boys' and girls' schools had different objectives.

With the 1843 revolution, political actors rethought education on a democratic basis, advocating equal access for all children regardless of gender and social class. According to Article 31 of the 1843 Constitution: "Education must be free, and schools must be gradually distributed according to the needs of the population. Each commune must have a primary school for both sexes, free and accessible to all citizens."

Despite various reforms in the Haitian educational system since 1843, it remained an obligation for the state to guarantee free access to education for all children regardless of their social class. In this context, the Haitian state created high schools and national schools in communes to democratize access to basic education. The 1987 Haitian Constitution recognizes in Article 32-6: "The state must ensure that each territorial collectivity, obligatorily the communal sections, communes, and departments, has educational establishments adapted to their development needs."

Given the population density in each communal section, especially in larger ones, it is almost impossible for a single national school in each section to meet the population's needs. To date, we have not reached the minimum level where each section has its national school and high school. Many children are forced to leave their section to attend school in the town center or another section. It is difficult to estimate the distance a student has to walk to get to school, especially those living in rural areas.

In the Hinche community, for example, the main means of public transportation is motorcycle taxis. The cost of a ride from the town to the sections varies between 250 and 500 gourdes or even more, depending on the section. Parents are not always able to provide transportation for their children to go to school. Moreover, motorcycles cannot reach all areas. In difficult-to-access areas, people mainly walk. As a result, many students have to walk to school despite the dusty and rocky roads. In writing this article, we want to analyze the reality of students living in some localities such as Kawobit, Karelouk, Fòrezoli, and Wanikètè.

To document this work, we tried to gather firsthand data from a coordinator working in these localities for the Organization for the Protection of Restavèk and Human Beings (Òganizasyon pou Pwoteksyon Restavèk ak Èt Imen, OPREH), which is involved in child protection. According to the information shared, the journey from Hinche to Karelouk takes about 40 to 45 minutes by motorcycle, and the road is full of hills and dust. This often causes students to arrive late at school and frequently miss school days because they walk to the town center, sometimes tired and hungry. The distance negatively impacts these students' performance, as they cannot concentrate when they arrive at school. One of the children the coordinator supervises is 11 years old and used to live with someone in Hinche. He was very bright in school, usually scoring around 7, sometimes 6. Since they were sent back to their parents in Karelouk, their performance has declined, and they can't even achieve the passing score of 5. When the coordinator discussed the results with them, they cried and explained that the environment is not conducive to his learning, as they cannot concentrate after the long journey to school.

The situation is almost the same for children in Kawobit, Fòrezoli, and Wanikètè, with the only difference being that the roads are less hilly and closer to Hinche. The coordinator takes about 20 to 25 minutes by motorcycle to reach these areas. The distance causes the children to arrive at school tired, often late, missing classes, and unable to perform well.

Considering Article 32 of the Constitution, which advocates access to education for all children as a state duty, we are interested in questioning what this access means. Does access to education mean enrolling in a school and being counted among the students, or does it mean accessing the content taught at school to learn? How can we talk about access when a student has to walk about one to two hours to get to school? How can we talk about access when the student arrives at school sleepy because they are so exhausted? How can we talk about access when the student frequently misses school days because they can't make the journey to school by walking? Can we talk about equal access in such an approach? Can we talk about mass schooling when state services are concentrated in towns? Don't rural communities deserve schools too? On what basis does the state choose to establish schools in one area and not in another?

According to UNESCO's analysis of access to education, we can consider the following approach: “Access to education includes timely enrollment and age-appropriate progression, regular school attendance, learning that meets national educational performance standards, a sufficiently safe learning environment to enable learning, and an equitably distributed school supply." (Lewin, 2015: 32)” (Lewin 2015: 32).

Legally and evidently, schools should be distributed according to the population's needs. This means that if a community has many school-age children, it should have a public school within at least 5 kilometers from people's homes. Considering the context of Quebec students, for example, if the distance between a school and a student's home for 1st and 2nd grades exceeds 800 meters, they have access to free transportation, and for 3rd to 6th grades, if it exceeds 1800 meters, they have access to free transportation to go to school. We can question the level of Haitian schools in the international ranking, particularly in America.

The effectiveness of an educational system depends mainly on the treatment learners and educational agents receive. If learning conditions are not met, it is impossible to talk about real access to education. Guaranteeing good learning conditions for children regardless of their residence area is essential to discuss social justice. The education they receive will enable them to achieve social mobility.

According to the 1987 Constitution, “the first duty of the Haitian state and territorial collectivities is mass schooling of the population” since education is the principal element to build human capital, which will contribute to the development of society. When we select some communities to establish schools and ignore others, we automatically create inequality among children, which constitutes the basis of social injustice. It is not only OPREH children who are in this situation; generally, children living in rural areas are often victims of access issues in their communities. Many children are intelligent and motivated to learn, but the context does not favor them. This problem creates a vicious circle where rural people continue to be victims from generation to generation.

Finally, educational policies must aim at the interest of all. It is necessary for the state to consider the individual needs of children based on their communities and, above all, make the school available in the community without requiring a long journey to benefit from some education. Whenever we talk about access to education, if we only consider children's enrollment in a school's register, the data will not be accurate since not all enrolled students are active. We must be clear about the difference between access to school and access to education. For some children in the communities we considered, we can talk about fragile access to school, nevertheless. But for access to education, it is difficult to discuss it in their context, especially when considering these basic elements involved in access to education according to UNESCO: regular school attendance, a safe learning environment to enable learning, an equitably distributed school supply and age-appropriate progression. Access to education means accessing the content taught at school and benefiting from all the physical and mental provisions to learn. Creating public schools in rural areas is a duty of the state and the surest way to help achieve social justice in Haiti.

 **État haïtien, Constitution de la république d´Haïti, centre œcuménique des Droits humains, 29 mars 1987, Port-Au- Prince, Haïti, Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, octobre 1997. Art 32-2

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État haïtien, Constitution de la république d´Haïti, centre œcuménique des Droits humains, 29 mars 1987, Port-Au-Prince, Haïti, Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, octobre 1997.

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