PS News presents reports on recent College activities and a selection of announcements, events and initiatives in the wider education community that may be of interest to our members.
Teaching the teachers
Help Haiti teach
In the ongoing wake of the calamitous January 2010 earthquake, Haiti needs teacher-volunteers more than ever to help restore its education system. In Port-au-Prince alone, an estimated 1,300 teachers died as a result of the quake.
“My world crumbled after the disaster,” says Pierre Joanis, director of Project Teach, which, since 1998, has been sending teachers from Ontario and around the world to Haiti for a few weeks every summer. Joanis, a retired Ontario French Immersion elementary teacher, established the program in his homeland to address its impoverished education system – a problem he attributes to poorly qualified teachers.
“Many of these teachers have no concept of a basic lesson plan,” Joanis says. “Many lack the proper schooling even to be a teacher.”
Another problem is violence in schools – by teachers. Says Joanis: “If we can save one teacher from beating a child, this is progress. To build a democratic society in Haiti, one has to start with the rule of law in the schools.”
Every summer, Joanis and up to 20 volunteers help Haitian teachers upgrade their skills and become better instructors. These days, he is looking for teachers who can impart effective learning techniques. “This is not the time for Piaget’s theories,” he says. “I need experienced teachers who can convey the trade.”
Knowledge of French is not a requirement for program applicants. Translators will be provided, if necessary.
Volunteers, who live with families, are responsible for their travel expenses, while Project Teach picks up the local housing costs. Joanis does no fundraising and pays for his volunteers’ on-site expenses from his own pocket.
For his part, Joanis feels “fortunate to possess a trade that can make a difference.” He says, “If not Haiti, it would be someplace else. This is our responsibility.”
For application forms and more information, visit www.project-teach-haiti.org.
Haiti: A class of primary girls completes afternoon lessons in a temporary classroom built by Plan Canada at école frère Clément, a boys’ school in Jacmel, Haiti. The girls’ school was destroyed by the earthquake, so classes continue in borrowed rooms designed to let in sunlight and good airflow.
