Posted by Anooja in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, British Council Sri Lanka, education, efponline, ELT conference, employability skills, English for Progress, English Next India, Primary education, Rod Bolitho, teaching English
Hello everyone
It was a pleasure watching the conference sessions live online yesterday. I urge those of you who wanted to attend the conference but could not, to use this facility provided by British Council to watch it live and even take part in it by adding comments. You comments may get discussed.
I tuned in for some of the sessions. Some- like, ‘building skills for employability’- were gripping as well as hilarious. Especially the speech by Manish Sabharwal; was it eloquence epitomized! Some were eye openers–Policy implications for English teaching and learning. It was quite informative.
‘Policy implications for English teaching and learning’ dealt a lot with scenario in schools in different parts of India. I guess good English teaching and learning in schools will lead to ‘building employability skills’ in the long run! This points to the lacuna we have in India in this area.
Isn’t that one of the reasons that makes ‘building employability skills’ a necessity now? I have heard private school principals lamenting about the difficulty they face in recruiting good teachers. They have to place the good teachers in high school so that the 10th grade results are not compromised. So most often the worst teachers end up in the primary section.
Rod Bolitho, Academic Director of Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE), raised many questions which I felt are very relevant.
Some questions, about the shortage of English teachers in India, are listed below.
- How attractive is teaching as a career in India in general?
- What is the reason behind the English graduates choosing fields other than teaching as profession?
- Is there any appropriate formulated initiative in India to raise the number of English teachers in training?
- Has the government decided what the probable number of teachers required to be trained is in order to meet the demand in, maybe, the next 10 years?
- Are there enough institutions training teachers?
Some others, about the quality of English teachers/education, are below.
- What is the minimum qualification for school teachers? Is there any standardisation of qualification for the primary school teachers teaching English across India?
- In some states the minimum qualification set for the teachers of English is far lower than the others. So is bad English being perpetuated through the system?
- What type of pre-service training do they undergo?
- What kind of training is going on in pre-service level and how practical is it?
- Are the pre-service training institutions calibrated completely against the needs of the teachers?
- Are the skills of the teacher educator the skills which are needed to produce methodologically and linguistically competent teachers?
What is your opinion on these issues? Please write in your comments, would love to hear your ideas.
Posted by Catherine in English for Progress.
Tags: Activity Based Learning, British Council, British Council India, education, efponline, ELT conference, Primary education, Project English, Tamil Nadu, teaching English
In this session entitled ‘Managing the Silent Revolution’ the audience watched a video which showed how Activity Based Learning (ABL) has been implemented in schools in Tamil Nadu. We saw the teacher in a non-traditional role, not as the teacher standing as an authoritative figure at the front of the classroom, but as a facilitator of activities in which children were able to participate much more freely. Children were encouraged to work in groups and help each other, as well as monitor their own progress. The classroom scene was a refreshing change from visions of children sitting in rows listening to a teacher; here the role of the child is very much a participative one in which confidence and motivation are key to the learning process.
The film was a great start to the session on ABL, and will truly motivate teachers in other areas to learn from this project.
How could other schools implement ABL?
Posted by Philip Clegg in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, education, ELT conference, English for Progress, English Next India, in-service teacher training, NCTE, pre-service teacher training, Primary education, Project English, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
In the parallel session, ‘In-service and Pre-service English Language Teacher Education’, the room split into two groups to discuss the best way forward for in-service and pre-service teacher education.
One recomendation that came out was that Teacher Educators should come from schools and not from institutes or universities. They should be good teachers with a lot of practical experience and not traditional academics with doctorate degrees. What do you think?
Who is going to select these teachers? How to select them?
Should teachers be allowed to nominate themselves?
How do we replace the good teachers who we take out to become teacher educators?
Your comments please.
Posted by Catherine in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, Continuous Professional Development, CPD, ELT conference, in-service teacher training, INSETT, NILE, Norwich Institute for Language Education, Rod Bolitho, teaching English
Rod Bolitho, Academic Director of Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE), tells us that the teaching profession is not a static profession and as such, teachers need to continually develop.
He also reminds us that development can only come from within an individual – teachers cannot be forced to develop, but they can be exposed to development opportunities.
Rod goes on to say that INSETT (in-service teacher training) and CPD (continuous professional development) are not synonymous. Teacher training is one route that teachers can take to help themselves develop, but there are other ways, such as gaining new qualifications, becoming involved in projects and materials development, mentoring and buddy systems, membership of teaching associations, classroom observations and feedback and autonomous research.
How do your schools and institutes ensure that teachers have access to the latest skills and knowledge in the ELT sector? How is their learning recognised and rewarded?
Posted by Philip Clegg in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, ELT conference, English Next India, in-service teacher training, Maya Menon, NCTE, pre-service teacher training, Professor Siddiqui, teaching English, The Teacher Foundation, Third Policy Dialogue
Prof. Siddiqui, Chair of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE)talked about the development of new curriculum framework for teacher education in India that he hopes will be implemented nation wide over the next 3 to 4 years.
He says pre-service, in-service and professsional development of teachers must be considered as a continuum of teacher education.
He says there has been a shift towards a more constructivist approach to learning. He recognises a need to enhance language competence and a need to give space for teachers to become reflective practitioners.
Professor Siddiqui recommends a 2 years post graduation teacher training programme, or 4- 5 years for school leavers (after plus 2).
How many years pre-service training do you think teachers need?
Posted by Philip Clegg in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, chane management, ELT conference, English for Progress, English Next India, Martin Wedell, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
Dr Martin Wedell, Senior Lecturer, University of Leeds presented a session around planning for change in education.
He said that we are better at planning for change than seeing change in practice.
He also said change is unlikely to be identically implemented and that ultimately it is what teachers do in classrooms that determines what changes have taken place.
The neglect of how people actually experience change as distinct from how it might have been intended is at the heart of the spectacular failure of most social and educational change policies.
Transition is a complex process – changing teachers to facilitators – we often think that training will take care of that. But it is also a matter of systemic support – both visible and invisible.
Societal expectations and assessment systems must also change as well as the teachers and their teaching to ensure successful change processes.
Posted by Philip Clegg in English for Progress.
Tags: BPO, British Council, British Council India, David Graddol, ELT conference, employability skills, English for Progress, English Next India, Manish Sarbharwal, NASSCOM, teaching English, Team Lease, Third Policy Dialogue
I want to draw your attention to Manish Sabharwal’s presentation at the Third Policy Dialogue, Session 3, Building Skills for Employability. Manish is CEO and President of Team Lease.
Manish spoke with such eloquence, wit and at such breakneck speed, that he managed to keep us all on the edge of our seats straight after lunch! His talk is peppered with so many wonderful soundbytes that I urge you to view at it in your own time. Find out what he meant by ‘the ovarian lottery’ and why ‘English is like (Microsoft) Windows.’
Enjoy!
Posted by Philip Clegg in English for Progress.
Tags: 1st language, British Council, British Council India, ELT conference, English for Progress, English Next India, NASSCOM, Primary education, Project English, Som Mittal, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
Som Mittal, president of NASSCOM, speaks at the Third Polcy Dialogue as part of the first panel discussion – English Next India: Policy implications for English teaching and learning.
Som believes using the labels 1st, 2nd and 3rd language is wrong and wonders why we can’t just use the term ‘languages ‘ like we do with other subjects, such as sciences. Should equal importance be given to L1, L2 and L3? What do you think?
The panel discussion is getting lively. Watch it live or recorded online!
Posted by Seamus in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, British Council Sri Lanka, David Graddol, ELT conference, English for Progress, English Next India, INSETT, mentoring, Primary education, Project English, RESC, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
Among the many fascinating statistic’s in David Graddol’s address last night,one comment resonated with me, and with many others if my conversations at the reception that followed were typical. Any programme is only as good as the teachers on the ground. Teachers sometimes attend training at the start of a new initiative but are then left alone to get on with it.
In Sri Lanka, there is a network of 30 Regional English Support Centres (RESCs) with well trained and committed staff who act as mentors to teachers at the local level. The more I interact with the RESC staff the more impressed Iam.
Is there such a netwrork in other places that provides continuing in-service support to teachers and is it well supporgted from the centre?
Posted by Stephen in English for Progress.
Tags: BPO, English, English for Progress, ITES, NASSCOM, teacher training, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
The fact that 85-90% of college leavers in India are not considered immediately suitable for employment in the ITES sector presents a huge challenge for the industry. So what is the solution? One of the action points from the 2008 NASSCOM-Everest BPO report is to:
“Increase employability and access untapped talent pools by creating greater linkages between the current education system and the needs of the BPO industry, and facilitating the development of BPO-specific education models.”
The report goes on to make a number of recommendations in this area:
“Initiatives related to education are required to expand the employable talent pool in India. The industry needs to work more aggressively with the Government to create greater linkage between the current education system and requirements of the BPO industry. This can be done by 1) policy changes like liberalization of higher education, 2) increased collaboration between industry and academic institutions to take up initiatives such as introduction of BPO-specific curriculum and improving students’ access to funds for higher studies, 3) introducing coursework changes and teacher training at the school level in accordance with future requirements of the BPO industry. There is also a significant opportunity for private players to step in and create a BPO education industry. Such a move should be based on creating longer-term training programs to improve communication and other skills required by the BPO industry. Specific training programs need to be developed to create several intermediate levels of skills and specialisation (between generalists and highly trained specialists), and to bring alternate talent pools (e.g. high school graduates, educated housewives) into the BPO workforce.”
I think educationalists would probably disagree that the purpose of education is to provide employees for the BPO sector, although they would probably agree that teacher training and curriculum development are needed.
What are your views?
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