Teacher - Haiti Observer Blog

An innovative idea to get a broken traffic light to work again at the corner of John Brown and Martin Luther in Port-au-Prince by the privately run College Catts Pressoir contributed to place their teacher in international stage.

The school chemistry teacher Guy Etienne teaches student leadership and problem solving skills

Guy Etienne of Haiti is competing for a $1 million award as the World's Most Exceptional Teacher, given by the Varkey Foundation. Etienne has made it to the final 10 and will travel to Dubai where the winner will be announced at the Varkey Foundation's Global Education and Skills Forum.

Read more →  

A new salary scale for the nation's teachers was published recently by the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) with the help of the Office of Management and Human Resources. The scale was developed with consideration to three criteria developed for the purpose with technical aid from the Management Board and Human Resources. It is part of a bigger plan to overhaul the education system, in which teachers will also benefit from better working conditions and an overall fortification of teaching practices and the education system as a whole.

Read more →  

In an effort to improve teacher's working conditions in the public sector of education and to strengthen the education system, the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) has developed new salary scale.

Based on qualification, the educational staff is grouped into three cactegries:

Salary scale:
Teachers with an educational level of the 3rd cycle of basic education will receive from 13,000 to 14.333 Gourdes.

Teachers graduated from "École Normale d'instituteur will have a starting salary of 20,000 gourdes and can go all the way to 29.282 gourdes.

Teachers with a bac +3 + (CAPED), the salary will be between 21,038 and 40,132 Gdes Gdes

Read more →  

All Haitian teachers are about to reconnect with their own roots as students. As part of the Government initiative to reform the education sector, all teachers will be required to pass a test if they wish to stay in the classroom. The test, daunting as it might be to some, will provide the necessary certification for teachers to keep doing their jobs.

The move is one of many to improve the country's literacy rate. Haiti, which has long suffered from a high rate of school drop-outs, is seeking to put an end to this, and the officials feel having uniformly certified teacher's is a step towards this. This plan is only one aspect of a greater project. According to Nesmy Manigat, Haitian Education Minister, it includes the issuing of provisional licenses to the teachers, allowing them two years in which to study and take the test. Manigat stated that what the government wanted was a new generation of teachers, as one of the biggest problems in education is the lack of qualified educators.

Read more →  

In high-school sports, no one is more revered, respected, and loved than Paul Calixte. Born to a privileged family in Cap-Haitien, he studied at Les Freres de l'Instruction Chretienne Grade School and graduated from College Notre Dame High School. After his studies, he remained as an instructor at College Notre Dame. He won his first of five football championships in 1972 that encouraged him to form the Football Inter-Club Association.

As a coach Paul Calixte believes in developing well-rounded personalities. He places just as much emphasis on grades as he does on winning a game. For half-a-century he has taught in high schools in Haiti and mentored scores of students through the thorny teen years.

Read more →  

Gerard Gourgue grew up young when his mother passed away just days after his birth in December of 1925. This first personal struggle created in him a resilience that would carry him through some of the most trying times in Haiti's past. His is a history of politics, and its eternal dance between what is right and what is wrong.

It is almost certainly clear on what side Gerard Gourgue falls. Even as a young man, his interest in politics, his academic performance and even his association with future greats like René Depestre gave insight into his early possibilities... show me your friends. He would live his life as a politician, a minister, an ambassador, lawyer, teacher, human rights activists and, for one brief moment in Haitian history, he almost added president to his list of accomplishments.

Read more →  

Haitian culture's emblematic figure, Franketienne is a Haitian teacher, painter, actor, writer and poet. He has authored 40 books in Creole and French that include names like Ultravocal and Dezafi. His exceptional work has earned him numerous literary awards and prizes. He was born in 1936 and his original name was Franck Etienne. When it comes to painting and art, Franketienne is known for his abstract and colorful work and very often he has been found to be emphasizing on red and blue.

Franketienne is a protagonist - larger-than-life type of protagonist and even during the days when Haiti succumbed to the dictatorships of Papa Doc and Baby Doc, he was never forced by his fear to step down of the National Stage. Franketienne compares a dictator to sado-masochistic relationship where a master is served by his slaves and the very existence of a master depends on the existence of slaves. However, Franketienne never related the historic Haitian slavery with sado-masochistic relationship because even though the master-slave relationship held true in those days, the only problem was that the slaves were considered to be expendable because of excess supply.

Read more →