On Monday October 12th & Tuesday October 13th, 2009 the first of a series of trainings in the Dutch language training started for the teachers of Cycle I & II of the Foundation Catholic Education on Sint Maarten. This project “Activation of Teaching Dutch Language in the Catholic Schools”, is an initiative of the Foundation for Catholic Education; DERPI provides the necessary assistance and guidance with the execution of this project, as part of the Program Education & Youth, financed through USONA by Dutch Development Funds. The project will be implemented during the school year 2009-2010.
Earlier this year the Foundation for Catholic Education on Sint Maarten requested assistance from DERPI for funding for the activation of teaching Dutch Language in the Catholic schools as part of the language policy for the schools. After many discussions between DERPI, the representatives of the Foundation for Catholic Education on Sint Maarten and the consultant regarding the content of the program, a request was submitted to USONA for funding of the project.
The consultant contracted to supervise and guide the project is drs. J.H.M. Zielhorst from the ABC Onderwijsadviseurs in Amsterdam. Ms. Zielhorst had worked on Sint Maarten in 2006 with KANS project, an exchange program between the schools in the Netherlands and the Sr. Borgia and Sr. Regina Schools on St. Maarten.
This project is geared towards the further development of the Dutch Language in the schools.
The main objective is to improve the skills of the teachers in their approach to teaching Dutch as a language of instruction for some of the schools and Dutch as a foreign Language for the schools where English is the language of instruction. The project is planned for a period of 10 months with two visits each of a month, to the island by the consultant.
During the first two sessions with all teachers, the consultant focused on teaching strategies such as oral language acquisition, vocabulary, reading comprehension and the basics of writing of the Dutch Language. The consultant will work directly with the two coordinators each school (one for Cycle I and one for Cycle II). The task of the coordinators is to develop plans and activities for the teaching strategies for their respective schools and share this with the class teachers. The consultant while on the island will visit the classrooms of each of the six Catholic schools giving ideas and tips on instruction of the Dutch language.
This project is being financed by the Dutch Development Funds through USONA.
For more information: call Oralie Boirard, project manager FBE at DERPI.
