Second phase of English project launched

MYSORE: The second phase of English language teacher development programme for government schoolteachers training the trainers, was launched here on Monday.
The programme is aimed at improving confidence of teachers in using English, to create an atmosphere for students to interact in English and to encourage teachers to adopt child-centric methods in the classroom.The three-week long training is a collaborative initiative by Sarva Shikshana Abhiyana, British Council, a UK-based international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations, department of state educational research and training and UNICEF.
Mysore District Institute of Education and Training lecturer Geetha told TOI that this is the second phase of training for teachers between V and VIII standards. Teachers were handpicked from various schools by conducting tests by the British Council to train them in English. The first phase programme was conducted in October.
As many as 60 teachers (master trainers) from Dharwad, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada, Bangalore, Kolar, Mandya and Udupi districts will participate in the training in the Mysore unit. They will be taught how to teach in English and methodology, besides enriching their vocabulary.
British council senior training consultant and project director for Project English in Karnataka, Clare O'Donahue says: "The training is aimed at improving standards of English teaching and learning in government schools and to provide equal opportunity to the students to learn in English."
As part of their project English, under the state partnership's strand, they launched the programme in November 2007, in India and Sri Lanka, with a view to build relationship for UK through cultural exchange activities. They are planning to a train minimum of 3,000 master trainers and reach out to 7.5 lakh teachers in these two countries using the cascade methodology. In Karnataka, they will reach out to 10,000 teachers, through some 700 master trainers.
"The uniqueness of this programme is that it is an interactive learning, unlike other English learning. Here, trainers have to interact with resource persons selected by BC in English, who will, over a period of time, gain confidence to speak in English," Clare claims.
This project is also being implemented in New Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Kerala, and parts of Sri Lanka. Clare claimed they had approached many state governments in India but they got a better response from South Indian states. At present the training is underway in three different centres Mysore, Bangalore and Dharwad in Karnataka.
The programme was inaugurated by SSA state project director Sandhya Venugopal Sharma at Vivekananda institute for leadership development on Monday.