Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

British Council to introduce ‘Project English’ in schools

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The British Council Division, Chennai, will conduct a ‘needs analysis’ of teachers and students in Kerala before offering its ‘Project English’— an initiative that aims to assist State governments in raising the standard of English language teaching. This was decided at a workshop on the project, which was inaugurated on Saturday by Minister for Education M.A. Baby.

The prime aim of the project is to equip students with English language skills and ‘soft skills’ needed to bridge the gap between education and employment. The training programme is custom-made, as part of the project is designed on a ‘cascade’ model with the British Council initially organising ‘Train the Trainer’ programmes. These master trainers, in turn, reach out to teachers in schools and help them refine teaching methodologies and classroom practices so that learning becomes activity-oriented, multi-sensory and child-centred.

After the Council completes the needs analysis in the State, it will design training programmes and study material for teachers. According to project manager Nirupa Fernandez, the idea is not to replace the existing curriculum or textbooks in schools, but to provide the necessary training to teachers so that they can use these textbooks and curricula in a more effective manner.

The Council aims to train more than 75,000 master trainers in India in the next five years.

In his inaugural address, Mr. Baby said the British Council has come up with Project English as a means to improve learning standards at a time when quality improvement in school curricula was the subject of a heated debate in the State. The inaugural ceremony was followed by an interactive session where senior training consultant with the British Council Geraldine Greenhalgh demonstrated the effectiveness of group activities and multi-sensory learning in understanding concepts and in solving problems. The workshop was jointly organised by the Association of British Scholars

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