Schools as centers for societal transformation

• In Event: Education in Haiti: Alternatives for Social Transformation

Proposal

In Haiti only 61% of adults are able to read and write. Because of a colonist mentality, the current educational system has all students learning in French (which is spoken by only 5% of the population) even though Creole, the mother tongue spoken by all Haitians, is the basis for early comprehension and intellectual growth for 95% of the population. In addition, factors such as lack of materials, untrained teachers, corporal punishment, verbal humiliation and coming to school hungry further inhibit their learning.

A New Approach
Low, an American educator, and Abner Sauveur, a Haitian teacher, co-founded the Matènwa Community Learning Center (MCLC) in 1996. MCLC is in the rural island of Lagonav; home to about 120,000 people with over 200 elementary schools. MCLC’s unique educational program is based on core principles that offer a fundamentally different approach, which has resulted in shifts in language ideology and pedagogy, producing competent teachers and successful students.

Core Principles:

1. Classroom instruction is delivered in Creole. Thus, students learn to think, read, and write in their native tongue. They do not see themselves or their language as inferior. French is taught as a second language.
2. Students learn in an environment that prohibits corporal punishment and promotes mutual respect and dialogue between school administrators, teachers, parents, and students, with an emphasis on respect and equal opportunities for women and girls. Inclusive positive discipline and positive reinforcement are used to create a nurturing and democratic learning environment. Teachers are facilitators and students are participants, departing from a slave mentality.
3. Elementary grade students learn to read by writing and illustrating Mother Tongue Books in Creole that become part of their class library. The books are age-appropriate and culturally relevant. Children solidify their reading skills, and develop their creativity through storytelling and art. This pedagogy produces proud capable young authors.
4. All students work in the school’s organic garden that promotes concrete skills as well as food security.
5. Teachers follow a curriculum that includes art, music, computer science, and physical education.
6. Teachers receive training to ensure they use their own creativity to deliver educational content using local materials.
7. Children are seen and heard. They are part of classroom, whole school, and community wide discussion circles.
8. Students are given choices.
9. Community members replicate the practices of mutual respect and group-level problem solving.

This works: 92% of MCLC’s first graduating class passed the Ministry’s Philo exam, in French. With a collaboration with the Ministry of Education on Lagonav, every year more schools on Lagonav are adopting the core principles that they can implement with their limited budget. Schools from all major cities on the mainland have also come for training. Ministry declared that all first and second grades should be taught in Creole starting September 2023. Publishers are creating Creole materials for these grades. We are on the path to making sustainable changes in Haiti’s antiquated system.

Author

• Christine Wei-ying Low, Friends of Matènwa