Friday after a 5 day mission, a Finnish delegation led by Jaana Palojarvi, the Director of International Relations at Ministry of Education and Science of Finland, presented to the press a positive assessment of the work done with the officials of the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP).

Jaana Palojärvi, indicated that her mission in Haiti that allowed her, after having visited in Port-au-Prince public schools and non-public, to better understand the Haitian education system and identify new areas of cooperation where Finland intends to provide its support.

According to Ms. Palojärvi, the quality of education has been the aspect to which the emphasis has been put during discussions with the Directorate of Curriculum and Quality (QCD), of the Training and Development (DFP), of basic education (DEF), secondary education (DES) and the Office of management of Early Childhood Education (BUGEP).

The teacher training and curriculum reform initiated by the Ministry seem for the moment, the two main projects at the center of this cooperation to be reinforced in the coming months. Ms. Palojärvi is looking forward to soon have Haiti, among the countries where Finland has a direct and active cooperation.

Announcing that by September 2014, the Minister of Education and Sciences of Finland, is expected to return to Haiti to officially sign a cooperation agreement between the two countries. Field visits are also planned in Finland, to allow Haitian partners to better assess the quality of Finnish education system.

For its part, Guy Serge Pompilus member of Cabinet of the Minister of Education, Nesmy Manigat, estimated that Haiti had much to learn from the Nordic countries and expressed appreciation for the quality of exchanges, that have opened new opportunities for Haiti.

He stressed that issues of teacher training, curriculum reform and student assessment are the three fields that constitute "the poles of cooperation between the two educational systems."

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre