The Programme ‘More Effective Schools Suriname’ (PROGRESS) was a collaboration between the Surinamese Ministry of Education and Community Development (MOECD) and VVOB. We started the programme on November 7th 2008 and ended it on December 31st 2013. After nearly five years of hard work and with the commitment and support of many, we are looking back at the achieved milestones.
Background of the joint programme
The aim of the programme was to make primary education in Suriname more effective by focusing on learner-centred and child-friendly education. In this education, the child and its learning process is central: each child has its own qualities and talents. Teachers and schools should pay more attention to this. Therefore MOECD, UNICEF and VVOB worked together to publish the book ‘I believe in you!’ In this book, diverse stakeholders are sharing their ideas and experiences on quality education. Starting from those ideas, MOECD and VVOB developed PROGRESS together.
Our message: every child is unique, we are learning together
PROGRESS – Together achieved much
The programme focused on capacity building of the different partners: MOECD Departments (Inspection, Guidance, Resource Centre, Communication and Information, Research and Planning, HR, Education Bureau Professionalisation, and the Nucleus Centres), the Pedagogical Institutes (Institutes for Teacher Training) and the care coordinators in primary schools.
With the Departments of Guidance and Inspection, trajectories were developed to support the different MOECD Departments in updating and deepening their vision and mission.
In the field of professionalisation, general and specific trainings were organised based on the needs of the Departments of Guidance and Inspection. An example of this is the two-year training of 26 care coordinators for primary schools. The care coordinator coordinates and improves care for all pupils in the school, along with the head teacher and the school team. Currently, the Guidance Department has started to train a second group of care coordinators in collaboration with the Education Bureau Professionalisation.
We established a Resource Centre for MOECD staff. This media library is a powerful and dynamic knowledge centre that makes developments in the field of education easily accessible to the MOECD staff. It inspires lifelong learning.
In order to give direction to the educational innovations at the Pedagogical Institutes and its stakeholders, their vision, mission and strategy was made clear. Also, the Surinamese Pedagogical Institutes developed the change trajectory ‘The New Teacher’ to improve quality of the teacher training for primary education. It has become a competency-based training with more emphasis on pedagogical and didactical skills - in line with the idea of 'every child is unique and has talent'. We launched the implementation of the change trajectory in 2012. Most important pillars of this process were curriculum development, an internal quality care system and professionalisation of lecturers.
In 2011, we set up a sustainable system for professional development: the Education Bureau Professionalisation. This agency enables staff of MOECD, the Pedagogical Institutes and schools to regularly take further training. Within the agency, a trajectory ‘learner-centred and child-friendly education’ has been developed, consisting of several courses: 'I believe in you’, ‘Powerful Learning Environment’ and ‘Activating Didactics’.
At the ‘Nucleus Centres’ of Brokopondo and Maroni we worked on individual and organisational capacity development, in order to support quality education in the interior of Suriname. The staff of these Nucleus Centres are detached teachers who now fill positions as coordinator, facilitator, trainer, IT manager, etc. To make the employees perform better in these functions, they were trained in management, communication, fincancial management and ICT. In addition, we organised specific support in the field of reading promotion.
In collaboration with the Research and Planning Department of MOECD, the existing education information system was extended to the ‘Education Management Information System Suriname’.
Higher positions within the MOECD require increasingly higher management skills. Therefore, we initiated a trajectory with the HR Department to strengthen management capacity through targeted training and coaching for the managers. For the secretariat staff as well, we organised a training aimed at further professionalisation.
Celebrating milestones
During the closing event on November 22st 2013, all partners have exhibited and explained their achievements and milestones to the Ministry, education stakeholders and the general public. Because the ultimate beneficiary of the programme was the primary school child, each department offered - besides activities for the adults – also playful children's activities that the children could perform in their own unique way.
