Teacher training and promotion of community schools

 

 

For Unity Foundation this project is a first collaboration with AHDIEH Foundation.

 

 

 

 

A first training offered by the Foundation aims to help people to create preschools. After that the teachers are required to attend annual training seminars to enable them to gradually add a grade level at their school. For this the Foundation uses parts of programs developed in other countries, particularly in Africa, and the foundation adapts them according to the experiences in field.

 

Before or after the first training seminar, the teachers discuss within their communities, the establishment of a community school. Experience has shown that communities have different ways of taking «possession» of their school. They do so for example by the gift of a piece of land and the mobilization of the community members how to support their school. Schools run through the payment of the fees by the parents. After a community school was set up, a meeting with the parents is held in order to create a parents association aimed to encourage parents to regularly pay the school tuition and in a general way, support the school. A committee is also established to manage administration and finances of the school.

 

Another important element of the approach of AHDIEH Foundation is the promotion and the support to community schools. The staff regularly visits the teachers in their schools. The purpose of these monitoring visits is to provide encouragements and support to the teachers, to help them with their meetings with the parents, the community and the parents association.

 

In addition to providing teacher training in CAR, the Foundation also provides training to representatives of groups and organizations from other francophone African countries, who wish to become involved in similar projects in their countries. Up to now AHDIEH Foundation has provided training to representatives of Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Togo.