Peace corps and teacher training

The first of Peace Corps's three stated goals is "to help developing countries meet their needs for trained manpower. Analogous to this goal is the ancient proverb (and commonly-cited Peace Corps philosophy):

If you give people fish, they will eat for a day; if you teach them how to fish, they will eat for a lifetime.

Peace Corps teacher training aims to do just this -- in this case, to train enough local teachers to meet a country's teaching needs. This is an important first step in freeing countries from their reliance on Peace Corps and other expatriate teachers.

Currently, about 25 percent of Peace Corps Education Volunteers are involved in teacher training activities. These activities take many forms and occur all over the world. In the formal sector, Volunteers are working with national teacher training colleges, state universities and national ministries or agencies to train host country counterparts in a wide variety of subject areas. These areas range from English as a Foreign Language (EPL) methodology, to math and science education, to physical education, special education and primary education.

In the informal sector, Volunteers are organizing and designing their own teacher training programs. Whether these programs are set up as after class activities at the Volunteer's school, as quarterly training workshops in rural village cluster areas, or as an integrated part of the school's teaching routine, the result is that information and innovative methodologies are transmitted to remote areas all around the world.