Two Members of Hope for Haiti’s Education Team Share Five Things They’ve Learned About Teacher Training in Haiti.

At Hope for Haiti, we know that there is an inextricable link between the quality of teachers in Haiti and student achievement. As we completed our last teacher training of the school year, we asked our two core education team members to reflect on what they learned about effective teacher training in Haiti.

Dear Friends of Hope for Haiti:

We write to you today as two people who believe in the vital role that teacher training and teacher quality play in student achievement. For the past 30 years, Hope for Haiti has been working to improve education and the quality of life for the Haitian people, particularly children. 

Each year, we work in collaboration with 24 partner schools, 424 teachers, and numerous non-governmental and government partners to help provide improved access to quality education for 7,200 Haitian children. We both believe that the future of our country rests in the ability to provide a child friendly education to our nation’s children—and this starts with having quality, well-trained teachers. 

We acknowledge that there are extreme challenges to our education system—we see them every day. However, we are both inspired by what can be accomplished when we live up to our core values, especially resilience, empowerment, and collaboration. Here are five things we have both learned about teacher training through our work with Hope for Haiti. 

1. The right language is key, and the right language is Haitian Creole. We believe teacher trainings in Haiti must meet a specific criterion for cultural appropriateness. For teacher trainings to be most effective, they must be held in Haitian Creole, with Haitian facilitators. 
2. You have to meet teachers where they are professionally.  The harsh reality is that many Haitian teachers, especially in rural areas, do not have adequate training. Many have at most a high school level education. This means teacher trainings need to be tailored to meet the needs of the teacher wherever he or she may be in their professional journey. 
3. Continuous training improves outcomes. We’ve learned that one teacher training is not enough, and that it’s more effective to have a continuous training program with the same teachers over multiple years. This reinforces past lessons and creates a community of teachers who support each other and their professional advancement. 
4. Monitoring and evaluation is NOT just an afterthought.We’ve learned the importance of getting feedback from teachers about what they learned and what they feel is most effective with each training. We also see great value in observing the teachers in the classroom as they work to implement the concepts they learn through our trainings. 
5. If you want to improve student achievement, improve teacher quality. This is self-evident, but when we see young Haitian students graduating from high school, we know that it’s because they worked incredibly hard, and that they had a teacher helping and inspiring them along the way. 

Thank you all for your support, your words of encouragement, and for sharing our belief that there is always hope for improving the quality of life (and teaching) in Haiti. 

Sincerely,

Jean Ronald Jocelyn (Education Program Manager) and
Jude Jean Pierre (Education Program Coordinator)

We invite you to join us as we prepare to celebrate World Teachers’ Day this October 5th. Make a gift today because you believe in the valuable role that teachers play in society and to help Hope for Haiti offer quality training opportunities for the future.