Summary: The Professional Development Program for Secondary Teachers in Northeastern Haiti
The proposal is for a one-year matching grant to develop a professional secondary teacher training program in Northeast Haiti. The program will enhance the quality of education by providing modern, student-centered teaching tools to teachers. Participants will be selected from all interested secondary schools in the participating location. They will be taught basic educational methods and fundamental content; such as children’s rights, democracy, and literacy. As part of the program, participants will be supported in their efforts to become educational leaders by serving as trainers and participating actively in a professional teachers’ organization.
Context and Local Need (Justification)
Education in Haiti is in a crisis. The 2008 'Education for All' Report indicated that Haiti fell last out of 186 countries in achieving the Millennium Development Goals for education. This is not surprising since the educational system consists of 90% private schools with little oversight, and public schools that are grossly under-funded. Even prior to the 12 January 2010 earthquake, the classrooms were overcrowded and teachers often had no formal training. Since the earthquake, 10’s of thousands of children have flooded the area. New schools have opened to accommodate them. However, few teachers in rural Haiti have formal teacher training, and most have no opportunity for learning new methods. No training programs have been set up for either the established or newly hired teachers.
North/Northeast Haiti is composed of 3 large cities (Cape Haitien, Ouanaminthe and Ft. Liberté), as well as populous smaller towns (Trou du Nord, etc.). Students generally move to one of these towns (and before the earthquake, also to Port-au-Prince) for their secondary education. Therefore, by targeting those towns, the impact is generalized to much of the North/Northeast.
Teachers use methods passed down from their teachers, repeating techniques long discredited (rote memorization of French) and in some cases, actually outlawed (corporal punishment). Teachers generally do not encourage higher learning skills, discussion is discouraged and with few exceptions, there are no experiments, even in the math and science. In addition to the negative intellectual impact on the student, the teaching methods also have a serious negative impact on the community. In the classroom, participatory or cooperative learning techniques are rarely employed. Authentic learning, which focuses on the needs of the student and community, is not part of the curriculum. Problem solving is not introduced. Consequently, the collaboration and problem solving skills so necessary to tackle complex issues and build civil organizations are missing from the student's learning experience.
Goals of the proposed program
To develop a secondary teachers training program accessible to secondary teachers in one town in Northeast Haiti,
To provide secondary teacher training to 58 teachers in the Northeast,
To initiate and support a Teachers’ Organization in the town where training will take place.
Principles of the program
Provides professional secondary teacher training of 80 hours that focuses on student-centered learning, children’s rights, civic engagement, critical health topics,
Open to working teachers with at least 2 years experience, invited from all schools in the area,
Equal opportunity for participation for all secondary teachers, with emphasis on women teachers who are in an extreme minority. Participation to be balanced by course content,
Parallel development of a Teachers’ Organization to serve as a sustainable group for future programs. The group will assist in logistics, identify areas of need in education, and ensure continuity of programs,
The training would be staffed by US or Canadian volunteers, prior participants of the current program, and Haitian consultants in specific areas (AIDS, Civics and Democracy, Children’s Rights).
Brief outline of proposed steps:
Open a dialog with at least 3 centers (Ft. Liberty, Trou du Nord, Cape Haitien), to identify teachers that are interested in establishing the program, and forming a preliminary teacher committee to explore the opportunity. MENFP should be apprised of the program and enter into discussion as they request, and asked for local references for teachers that would be candidates (CH Rotary),
Ask for the proposed sites to send 2-3 representatives to a similar program for 2 or 3 days in July/August. Have meetings with PAW, program direction, organizational development consultants, and MENFP. Participate in OPen-space organizational development seminar.
Select the exact location (host city), based on motivation and interest in forming a teachers’ association, recommendations from Cap-Haitien Rotary and MENFP.
Have working meeting in the fall 2010 to propose and outline an 80-hour secondary teacher training program for the chosen site. An organizational development seminar will be held at this time for the host teachers’ organization at the host city,
Two additional organizational development programs to be held in November and January at the host city.
Design the program, collect local data, register participants (collaboration with teachers’ association) in early 2011
July/August (potentially also in April), conduct the secondary teacher training program.
Beneficiaries
Fifty-eight secondary teachers will participate in the training the first year. Because teachers go from school-to-school as contractors, it is anticipated that all of the secondary schools in the area will be impacted by the program. A teacher often teachers 4 to 5 classes/day with 30 to 40 per class - resulting in thousands of students benefiting from the program.
Describe how the benefiting community will maintain this project after grant funding has been fully expended.
The grant will facilitate 3 to 5 group-building exercises conducted in part by an all volunteer organization, Haiti Partners. Haiti Partners has been involved for many years in community building (affiliated with Beyond Borders), and has strategies for creating civil engagement in Haiti.
The Teachers’ Association created in the selected town will be expected to aid in program logistics, set up a financial accountability, and begin the process of managing programs. It is anticipated that the training program would be held 3 years, with increasing involvement from the community. Following that time, the Teachers’ Association will independently bring resources to the community for future teacher development or education-related projects.
As an example, a teachers’ group in Ouanaminthe (PAW) formalized only 2 years ago, has independently held a debate where over 200 students participated, has started a middle school to accommodate the refugees returning from PAP, and has begun to create a resource library. | 
