The British Council responded positively when approached by the Ministry of Education with a request for help with a project that would address concerns about standards of teaching and learning of English in marginalised, rural areas of Pakistan.

Client, stakeholders, partners
The Ministry of Education

Focus
Improving the confidence, skills and English language competence of teachers in marginalised areas, in order to improve the learning of their students.

The project
The British Council responded positively when approached by the Ministry of Education with a request for help with a project that would address concerns about standards of teaching and learning of English in marginalised, rural areas of Pakistan.

A British Council manager and the representatives of the Ministry visited schools to assess the situation and the needs. A project focussing on enhancing the linguistic proficiency and teaching skills of teachers in the target areas was designed, based on a cascade model involving the training of a cadre of teacher trainers.

Together British Council and Ministry representatives selected 18 teacher trainers from the four areas targeted, and designed a ten-day workshop. During the training of these teachers, the British tutors focused on enhancing confidence in teaching skills and classroom language through a range of innovative activities. The programme included training which aimed to help the participants to cascade the training to teachers in their respective areas.

Visits to evaluate the project's impact showed that the project had produced positive results. The 18 trained teachers were applying their new skills and methodologies learned to bring about a visible change in their classrooms. This was obvious in the form of classroom organization, the use of English in the classroom, the active participation of learners, and a clear attitudinal change among students, from reluctance to eagerness.

The project's reach, and impact on the learning of English, is set to be impressive, with each trainer due to deliver training to four groups of 25 teachers in their area per year. By the end of the project approximately 2,650 teachers in 5 provinces across Pakistan will have been trained, and 10-15,000 pupils will start to benefit from the enhanced skills of their teachers.

What the stakeholders say
"At the start of the workshop the initial response was quite lukewarm, thinking it would be the same as one of the past experiences-all theory and lecture. To everyone's surprise the course turned out to be so practical, effective, interesting, and encouraging that they wanted more of it and were convinced that all of it can be applied in their own situation. What they have achieved since then has made their colleagues eager to join the next workshop."
Roudaba Shuja, Representative of the Ministry of Education.

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