The British Council announced at a virtual event, on Wednesday, that it has extended its National Teacher Training Programme (NTTP) in partnership with Egypt’s Ministry of Education and Technical Education.
The NTTP aims to improve teaching and training practices, raise the level of English language abilities, as well as the pedagogical ability of English primary teachers. It is taking place in a partnership with the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, and will benefit up to 37,000 primary school teachers.
The project is designed for Primary Stage teachers in Grades 1-6, teacher educators, and ministry Supervisors.
It also aims to raise the level of English skills among maths and science teachers who use English as a language of instruction in both government and official language schools
The programme will support teachers in improving their English language skills, and support teachers in developing their knowledge and skills of learning centred teaching techniques which they can apply in their classrooms.
It will also help build the capacity of Teacher Educators who can lead on continuing professional development programmes for teachers.
“One of our main missions is to help young people around the world, and in Egypt as well, to reach their educational potential,” according to John Shackleton, Regional Director English for Education Systems (EES) at the British Council.
He noted that the British Council believes that the more effective the teacher is in the classroom, the more that learning and engagement will be seen on the part of the learner.
“Our overall aim is to help young people reach their educational potential, to give them the kinds of skill learning, knowledge, understanding, they need to really kick, to get on with their futures and make the most out of life,” Shackleton said.
He added, “The work that we do is in partnership that is based on what teachers need, what they say they need, as well as being based on our research, on our understanding the context.”
Shackleton noted that the British Council wants to ensure that the participants are all able to access those opportunities to learn, to grow, and to develop as individuals.
“As we move into the third year in the NTTP programme, the key feature is the sustainability, and that we want to focus on how can we help, how we can contribute in a way that’s going to be long term and sustainable throughout the lifetime in various projects that we’re involved in, and into the future,” Shackleton, explained.
He added that the second key feature revolves around the idea of inclusion, as the NTTP is trying to support and help teachers in creating inclusive classrooms.
Shackleton mentioned that the focus while designing the programmes remains focused on meeting teacher needs.
“We draw on our global experience teaching and training as assessment, enabling research to inform our programming,” he said, “For example, during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, one of the things that the British Council realised very quickly was, of course, the need to accelerate its programme of creating opportunities that can be accessed online.”
“Our target is to reach 37,000 teachers, in the 27 governorates, the number that we received from teachers is 22,000 through training 500 teacher and mentor to be trainers in the programme,” the NTTP’s Programme Director Dina Halim said.
For her part, Eman Youssef, English Language Advisor at the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, said that this preparation period for the programme was long in order to really meet the needs of the teachers.
She mentioned that the Ministry and the British Council undertook several activities to analyse the exact needs of teachers. This included tests, teacher activities groups, pilot training, among other activities, to analyse and to gain teacher feedback. This assured participants that the programme is constantly listening to their requirements.
Youssef said that the main reason for all the programmes the Ministry is implementing is to raise the efficiency of the teacher who is the basic tool for education.
