The British Council has participated in the 25th edition of the NileTESOL conference, the largest English Language Teacher gathering in the region, which occurred last weekend.
The opening virtually-held ceremony was attended by Egypt’s Minister of Education Tarek Shawky, and over a period of two days the conference recorded over 10,000 participants to the live sessions.
NileTESOL is offered through a partnership between the British Council and the American University in Cairo (AUC). It seeks to provide opportunities for professional development, networking, as well as scholarly discussion and debate within the area of English language teaching.
It also aims to promote active involvement and participation by offering opportunities for the exchange of ideas and expertise within this area in Egypt, the Middle East, and worldwide.
This year, the British Council sponsored Sophia Mavridi, the renowned expert in learning technologies, as an international speaker. Her plenary talk gave practical ideas on blended learning and attracted 180 participants.
John Shackleton and Hala Ahmed from the British Council gave a session on strengthening and establishing teacher networks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which attracted 170 attendees.
Elizabeth White, Country Director of the British Council in Egypt, said, “NileTESOL has grown over the last 25 years as a result of wider acceptance of the English language as beneficiary and advantageous to those who learn it.”
She added, “This year, we are delighted to continue to share our expertise with public and private sector educators, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.”
Over the last 10 years, the British Council’s English programmes, Connecting Classrooms and National Teacher Training Programme has provided professional development training to more than 100,000 teachers in Egypt. This has taken place in partnership with Egypt’s Ministry of Education.
