Haitian Teachers Revive Community and Rebuild Education

"Education is at the core of Haiti's recovery and is the key to Haiti's development."
-UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova

Earlier this month on World Teacher’s Day, IREX paid homage to teachers around the world who have been affected by crisis. After earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, international aid workers, world leaders, Haitians, and teachers everywhere understood that the impact on Haiti’s education system would be devastating. The physical collapse of school buildings and universities; the deaths of irreplaceable teachers, administrators, and students and the abrupt halt of education services was a massive shock to the system. Amid the chaos of recovery, and continuing for months after the earthquake, Haitian teachers have risen to the occasion to provide desperately needed training for their peers and safe extracurricular activities for their students.

Practical Skills to Address Large Classrooms
When the only Haitian public teacher training institute collapsed in Port-au-Prince as a result of the earthquake, the once sparse availability of professional development opportunities for Haitian teachers became non-existent. Understanding the importance of continuous teacher training, Fanfan Joseph, an English teacher and President of the English Club of Cap-Haitien, organized a four-day training workshop for 50 English teachers in Cap-Haitien. Focusing on lesson planning, reflexive teaching, and cooperative learning techniques in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, Joseph trained participants on practical skills that they could use in their classrooms immediately. The participants of this workshop celebrated Joseph’s efforts and encouraged him to organize another workshop, which he promptly did. This September, Joseph’s follow-on workshop focused on skills for effective teaching and learning in large classrooms. Teachers around the world struggle with large class size; a typical school in Haiti can include as many as 250 students in one classroom. The participants in Joseph’s workshops represent many different schools across northern Haiti, and each of them teaches hundreds of students. As a result of Joseph’s workshops, thousands of students across northern Haiti are engaged in interactive classrooms with teachers who have benefited from this recent and relevant training.

Conquering Post Traumatic Stress
Another English teacher, Abel Mercier of Port-au-Prince, recognized that one of the most important things children need during times of crisis is the permission and space to have fun. “The secret to coping with post-traumatic stress in a community after an event such as the earthquake is to promote recreational activities among the children, teenagers, and adults,” says Mercier. This summer, Mercier organized a “Day of Fun” for over 80 high school students from Lycée Cité-Soleil in Port-au-Prince, the capital city that was hardest hit by the earthquake. Students gathered at the beach for a stress-free day of sports, arts, games, and more. By including a short workshop on the geological forces that cause earthquakes, and another on understanding the effects of psychology trauma, Mercier elevated his “Day of Fun” to a meaningful experience for a community in the midst of recovery.

Bolstered by the success of his “Day of Fun” and eager to work with his peers to build a stronger cadre of English teachers in Port-au-Prince, Mercier is currently implementing a training workshop for English teachers in conjunction with the formation and launch of the first-ever Cité-Soleil English Teachers’ Club.

Emergency Training
Jovenal Thomas, another English teacher from Cap-Haitien, collaborated with Red Cross volunteers to deliver CPR training to high school students. “There is no Civil Defense Warning Program here, no 911 telephone number to call, limited ambulance service and very little access to medical treatment,” says Thomas. “Students need to be trained to deal with emergencies when they encounter them.” In Haiti, a country particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural disasters because of its geological position, first aid and CPR training is rarely available. Thomas’s training has not only enhanced students’ capacity to deliver CPR and first aid in times of crisis, it has also developed their confidence, independence, and leadership skills.

Each of these Haitian teachers is an alumnus of the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA), a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and administered by IREX. The trainings and workshops described above were funded through the TEA Alumni Small Grants Program.