OLE Ayiti

Update 2010: Due to the recent earthquake which killed hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti, and also effectively destroyed Quisqueya University, the partner with which OLE had planned its collaboration, OLE Ayiti’s LIT program (below) is being put on hold while we currently explore ways to respond to the crisis by establishing basic education and community radio programming in the IDP camps in and around Port-au-Prince.

Support OLE Ayiti (Haiti)
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The Learning Innovations Teams Program (LIT) is a three-year demonstration involving skilled Haitian Master Teachers, working in teams, providing school-based training for educators in Haiti. Using OLE’s Studio and Library software, LITeams will integrate innovative ICT with free and open source content to provide to Haitian educators models of effective learning and supervised practice over a two year period.  The demonstration involves 4,000 teachers and school principals, mostly in rural Haiti, directly influencing 120,000 students and their families. Evidence of the program’s effectiveness can be the basis for expanding it to the 50,000 current Haitian teachers and to the additional 50,000 teachers needed in Haiti in order for the 3,000,000 school aged children of Haiti to achieve a quality basic education by 2015.  

Partners

About Haiti

The Republic of Haiti (French: République d’Haïti; Haitian Creole: Repiblik Ayiti), is in the Caribbean, occupying the western one-third of the island of Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, west of the Dominican Republic. The name Ayiti  was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island, meaning land on high.  The total area of Haiti is 27,750 square kilometres (10,714 sq mi), with a population of approximately 9 million. The capital is Port-au-Prince.

Although Haiti averages about 302 people per square kilometer, its population is concentrated most heavily in urban areas, coastal plains, and valleys. About 95% of Haitians are of African descent. The rest of the population is mostly of mixed Caucasian-African ancestry. A few are of European or Levantine heritage. Sixty percent of the population lives in rural areas.

French is one of two official languages, but it is spoken fluently by only about 10% of the people. All Haitians speak Creole, the country’s other official language. English and Spanish are increasingly used as second languages among the young and in the business sector.

The dominant religion is Roman Catholicism. Increasing numbers of Haitians have converted to Protestantism through the work of missionaries active throughout the country. Much of the population also practices voudou (voodoo), recognized by the government as a religion in April 2003. Haitians tend to see no conflict in these African-rooted beliefs coexisting with Christian faith.

Although public education is free, the cost is still quite high for Haitian families who must pay for uniforms, textbooks, supplies, and other inputs. Due to weak state provision of education services, private and parochial schools account for approximately 90% of primary schools, and only 65% of primary school-aged children are actually enrolled. At the secondary level, the figure drops to around 20%. Less than 35% of those who enter will complete primary school. Though Haitians place a high value on education, few can afford to send their children to secondary school and primary school enrollment is dropping due to economic factors. Remittances sent by Haitians living abroad are important in paying educational costs.

Haiti is the world’s oldest black republic and the second-oldest republic in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States.

How you can help

All OLE Centres currently require a breadth of public and private sector partnerships. Participation among individuals and industries, government, and independent NGOs are all vital to the creation and sustainability of local OLE Centers, as well as the growth and success of their particular models for ensuring universal basic education by 2015.

The individuality of local circumstances, and the methods for addressing local learning systems also means that every OLE Centre offers unique investment possibilities.

How you can help with OLE Ayiti:

  • Teacher development/education materials, expertise, and on-the-ground teacher-training volunteers
  • Hardware and digitization expertise to assist bringing existing local content online
  • Financial contributions
  • OLE Consortium members are thankful for help with translation of learning resources from English into French and Haitian Creole. If you can help translate, or contribute to the cost of translation, we will be very grateful.