Supporting the Bureau Diocesan d’Education, BDE in Haiti

I have been in Haiti now for almost four weeks and have able to see many old friends, meet new friends, and attend the ordination of a good friend, a preschool graduation, and multiple meetings and training sessions for the BDE Hinche. This trip has been very fruitful and I have gained a great deal of information and a much better understanding of the programs of the BDE Hinche and the Catholic School programs in Haiti. Throughout the various training sessions and meetings of the BDE that I was able to attend I heard over and over how much of a role model the Diocese of Richmond was as a supporter of Catholic Education in Haiti. The Diocese of Richmond has many Parishes twinned in Haiti, mostly in the Diocese of Hinche, but it is not this individual parish to school or church support that was being applauded, although it is greatly appreciated by everyone as well, it was more importantly the support of the BDE Hinche. Everyone from the CEEC program manager Mr Tessono, the CRS Haiti representative Carmen Matty-Cervants, the Notre Dame ACE program director TJ D’Agostino to the Director of the Central BDE in Port au Prince praised the Diocese of Richmond for recognizing the need to support the local Haitian Leadership of Catholic Education in the Diocese by establishing a partnership at the Diocesan level with the BDE. The financial support the Haitian Education Fund of the Diocese of Richmond sends to the BDE Hinche has helped to make the BDE Hinche one of the strongest in the country, which has resulted in the selection of the Diocese of Hinche to participate in Pilot Programs like the Teacher Training program and the ASER reading program. In addition regular visits to Haiti from members of the Board of the Haitian Education Fund and the BDE in Hinche to the US have helped to create a strong relationship which makes it possible to share ideas, successes and concerns and work together in partnership. By the Grace of God I came to Haiti during this four week period and was able to be present and participate as a supporter of the BDE Hinche, I made this trip now to be here for the ordination I had no idea these other training sessions or meetings would also happen now. I am very happy to be able to be here and to gather additional information to share with the HEF Board that will allow us to better understand the programs so that we can support the BDE in it mission of improving Education in Haiti and also to be here as a partner showing support for the BDE Hinche in their work. Because of the regular support from some Richmond Parishes and many generous people in the Diocese of Richmond and beyond who support the fundraising efforts of the Haitian Education Fund the BDE Hinche has been able to operate with a consistent staff of supervisors and directors to assist all Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Hinche in strengthening the quality of education they provide. In most other Diocese in Haiti they have no outside support and have very limited staff and even more limited capacity to help govern and support the schools in their Diocese. Supporting the BDE, the Head of the Catholic Schools in the Diocese, is essential to long term growth and support of all Catholic Schools in the Diocese. I hope by the Grace of God, the Generosity of the supporters of the HEF and the increased awareness of Richmond Parishes of the role of the BDE in supporting their individual twin this support of the HEF can continue and expand so that the resources are available to support and improve education for years to come. Supporting the Local Haitian Leadership is the key to working in partnership to help support and strengthen the Educational System in Haiti. The individual twinning parish support is essential with the current economic situation in Haiti for these schools to continue, but we should all be thinking of how we are helping them help themselves as well, and finding a way to provide support to the BDE of your Diocese does just that. After all, the end goal of the twinning relationship should be to work together to find a solution to the problems that are preventing the local actors from supporting themselves not to have partial ownership of an individual school in Haiti. In a few moments I will attend Mass with the Suppervisors and other participants of the BDE training session and then tomorrow morning I head to Port au Prince so that I am able to fly home to the US on Tuesday. I have been richly blessed to be in Haiti for the last four weeks.

6th grade Pretest PDF Posted

Good Afternoon I have just posted the 6th grade Pretest in PDF form as well for those who would find it easier to use the PFD than the photos I had originally posted. I will also post it here as well. 6th Grade Pretest 6th grade Pretest

Last week I posted the 6th grade pretest the Bureau of Education for the Diocese of Hinche prepares for the students who will take the State Exam next week.  This morning Sister Mamoune provided me with the pretests for the other 3 grades, 9th, Rheto and Philo.  The students in 9th grade took the exams last week the 3rd through the 5th, and the test PDF is below.

9th Grade Pretest PDF
9th grade pre exam BDE Hinche _1_

The Rehto and Philo grades will take the pretests this week and a copy of each is below as well.


Rheto Pretest

Rheto pre exam BDE _1_

Philo Pretest
Philo Pre exam BDE

The Bureau of Education for the Diocese of Hinche (BDE) prepares these pretest so that students can prepare for the State Exams they will take the last two weeks of June.  Students in these grades, 6th, 9th, Rheto, and Philo must pass the State exam to continue their education.  The BDE hopes providing this pretest will give the students and teachers an idea of the information that will be covered on the State exams and help them to prepare to pass these exams so that they can continue their education.

Yesterday I attended the Graduation for the preschool class of the Petite Sisters of St Therese at the Normale school.  Graduation began with a Mass at 8:00am, which really started at 8:30am, the preschool children filed in and took their seats on the altar and were very well behaved during the 2 hour mass that followed.

I was very surprised that the graduation only lasted 2 hours and so I walked back to my room to relax for the rest of the morning.  A few minutes later there was a knock on my door, it was not finished there was a second part, which lasted until 1:00 pm, 5 hours for a preschool graduation ceremony, with a short break between mass and the second part.  The children did skits, sang songs, and danced then the Maren and Paren did a speech, (the Godparents of the Graduation) a student gave a thank you speech to the Godparents and then the parents of each child came up to receive the childs diploma.

 
I am amazed how well behaved these children were for this long service, and also how well they preformed their parts in the ceremony, the dancing, singing and skits were all very well done.  It was a long hot morning as about 200 parents packed the old chapel of the Emmaus center for this celebration.  The Preschool has 2 classes and there were a total of 68 children from these classes.  I am happy that I could be present for this celebration of the graduation even though it was very long.  Lucky for me I have my key to my house at the Emmaus center and could escape for a break to get some cold water and use the bathroom during the service.

The maintenance man from the Normale School in Papaye was at the graduation because his son was graduating.  Below is a picture of Father and son on the graduation.

The Focus On Haiti Initiative is proud to publish presentation videos from our May 2nd symposium at The George Washington University. View this email in your browser

Who 'Owns' Haiti? Now Streaming On May 2nd, the Focus On Haiti Initiative brought together policy makers, practitioners, and academics for a symposium entitled Who 'Owns' Haiti: Sovereignty in a Fragile State, held at the Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, D.C. The day-long conference is now streaming in its entirety at http://go.gwu.edu/WOH.  Take a look to see the opening remarks by Bob Maguire and Robert Fatton, and the exciting panel discussions on governance and development, cultural heritage, and politics and the international community.  We're pleased to be able to make these important conversations available to all.  -Focus on Haiti team

Video Presentations at http://go.gwu.edu/WOH

On May 2nd the Haitian Education Fund held its Golf tournament in Virginia Beach, I was sorry to be unable to attend the event but very happy to attend the "Who 'Owns' Haiti" Symposium held in Washington, DC on this day.  The symposium was very informative and I was happy to attend to hear the various presentations from both Haitian and US representatives and especially enjoyed the very thoughtful question and answer periods during the sessions and also during breaks.  I think you will find the presentations interesting and hope that the question and answer portion comes through well on the video as well.


The information is listed above to access the video presentations of the Symposium.

Yesterday I was able to attend the final training for the Pilot ASER reading program in the 10 schools in the Diocese of Hinche.  Each of the 10 schools selected one 1st grade and one 2nd grade teacher to participate in the program and the director of the school plus 3 supervisors from the BDE Hinche attended.  In addition to the participants in the Diocese of Hinche a supervisor from the other diocese in Haiti attended the program to get a preview of the process.  Only the 10 schools in the Diocese of Hinche participated in the actual pilot program and the BDE Hinche was selected due to the strength and capacity of the BDE staff to support and supervise this program.  The training was held in 4 one day sessions at the Normale School in Papaye which lasted from 9 am until about 3 pm.

Below is a sample of the ASER Reading Test.
ASER Reading Sample Test

The teachers use this test to determine the comprehension level of each student quickly and easily.  The teacher begins with the Letter section and the student is asked to identify 5 letters if they can correctly select 4 of 5 they pass this level and move on to words.  The teacher then moves to the word section and the student must correctly identify 4 of 5 words selected by the teacher to pass.  If they pass the teacher moves on the the Paragraph level and the student is asked to read the short paragraph.  After successfully reading the paragraph they are asked to read the short story and are then asked a few basic comprehension questions.  In this manner it is very easy for the teacher to quickly test each student and record the level they have achieved.  The teachers test the students 3 times per year and record their progress providing them with a concrete way to measure the development of the students, the class and also to know which students need additional help to catch up to the required grade level competency.  There is currently no such information regarding student reading level in any school in Haiti, this program will allow the teachers, directors, supervisors and BDE and CEEC staff to understand the schools that are preforming well and those that need additional assistance.  This program will allow the teachers to know early on and throughout the students progression through 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc grade if the students are preforming at grade level.  This will help to address the deficiencies early on and allow the teachers to help the students who are behind to catch up and thus continue their education.

The program can also be used for Math and Science as well but only the Reading was tested in this Pilot.  Next year they plan to roll this training out to two additional Diocese in Haiti and will include Math as well.

An example of the Math ASER Test:

During this last training session they were to discuss recording and analyzing the results and TJ D'Agistino form Notre Dame's ACE program was very happy to see that many of the teachers had already created their own form of a tracking tool for their classes.  One teacher had taken a note book and listed the students names on the left half of the page then the testing levels on the right side, she had cut the page in Half so that she could flip the page for the 3 different test she administered and quickly see the students progress in this book.  TJ was very happy to see how organized these teachers were with keeping the records of the class even before it was discussed on taught in the training.

As this was the last session the teachers, the Directors and the Supervisors reviewed the program and gave feedback on the program and the training.  All were happy to have been a part of the program and all said they would like to continue the program next year and in the future expand the program.  They also said they felt they could teach the program to other teachers in their school and in the Diocese with a little more training and increased support for the supervisors.  There was very positive feedback on the program and it looks to be something that will continue and expand in the future.

Today I attended the Ordination of a friend I met in Haiti about 2 years ago, Seminarian Pierre Louis Joseph.  Pierre Louis was spending the year at the Emmaus Center in Papaye working with the director Pere Romel when I met him and I was able to get to know him during my stay.  Pierre Louis was learning English and wanted to practice speaking English with me and I was also trying to learn and improve my Kreyole so we spoke often throughout my stay both working to help the other learn the new language and gain practice.

Over the last two years Pierre Louis and I stay in touch through email and when I return to Haiti each time I try to schedule to visit with him during my stay and catch up on what has been happening since we last saw each other.  Last year during one visit Pierre Louis and I were asked to be Godparents to the niece of Father Romel, the director of the Emmaus center.  The Picture below is the three of us together in front of the guest house of the Emmaus center.

During a visit last October with the HEF Board members there was an ordination in Mirebalais that our group attended.  I saw Pierre Louis at the ordination as most of the seminarians and many priest attend all special celebrations, like the feast day of the Patron of the parish, an anniversary of the church or school, etc.  In Haiti these celebrations are events to celebrate in community and the Priest and seminarians want to be present to support each other in the celebrations in each others parish, there is a beautiful Mass and a big feast after for the occasion.  During my visit with Pierre Louis after the Ordination he told me it was nice that our group was able to share in the celebration of the ordination with the deacons, that it was a special day for them and it is very nice to have many visitors join in the celebration.  He then said I hope that you can come to my ordination to celebrate with me, I asked when it would be and he said when the Bishop decides that I am ready he will tell me and give me the date.  I told him if he sent me an invitation that I would do my best to come to Haiti for the ordination.  Three weeks ago I received the invitation and quickly began trying to make plans to attend, with such short notice I was not sure I would be able to attend but I was able to find a flight, there was a pastor, Pere Kesner from Cerca Carvajal, that I know from previous visits and had promised to come at visit on my next trip to Haiti who was in Richmond who would be returning the week before the ordination so I was able to travel with him and ride from Port au Prince to Hinche so everything fell into place and I was able to attend the ordination.  In Haiti many responses and comments include Grace a Dieu or Si Bondye vle, this is Thanks to God or if God wills, when you ask how are you the response is Very often Bien Bien, Grace a Dieu, (very well thanks to God) and when you say see you later it is Na we Pita si Bondye vle, (see you later, if God wills), I am able to make this trip to attend the ordination Grace a Dieu.

Pierre Louis with the other Seminarians entering mass for the Ordination

During the Ordination Mass the Deacons with the Bishop 

This trip has been a very good trip for many reasons, first because I was able to attend the Ordination of a friend in Haiti and celebrate with his family the special occasion, but also because it has been a very good time for me to attend meetings and training seminars with the Diocesan Bureau of Education (BDE) that are happening during this time.  I will also be present next Sunday for the graduation of the Preschool which is part of Ecole Normale d'Instituteurs Hinche Papaye, the 3 year teacher training school that I work with through the parish twinning program with Our Lady of Nazareth.  I was planning to make the trip later in June but changed plans when the invitation came and I have been very blessed to be here during this time instead of my previously planned time.  Each time I come to Haiti I learn more and more about Faith, Life, and Joy this time is no different and I am getting a strong lesson in trusting the will of God.