British Council holds graduation ceremony for TMTE 4th cohort

Graduation ceremony of the 4th cohort of primary teachers under the ‘Training of Master Trainers in English’ (TMTE) project was held recently at 10 Primary Teacher’s Training Institutes (PTIs) across the country.

TMTE project is a collaboration between the British Council and the Directorate of Primary Education. Activities under this latest cohort of TMTE had been designed by the British Council for 429 primary teachers, who received exclusive guidance on reciprocal learning and better ideas on how to make English language learning more interesting and effective for primary school students in this 14-week programme, said a statement.

The ceremony at the Dhaka PTI was graced by the presence of Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) Training Division Deputy Director Md Mahbubur Rahman Billah, British Council Bangladesh Education Director David Maynard and Dhaka Primary Education Divisional Deputy Director Mirza Md Hasan Khasru.

Besides Dhaka, the ceremony was also held at the Gazipur, Sherpur, Jashore, Barishal, Gopalganj, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Dinajpur and Moulvibazar PTIs.

On the occasion, Md Mahbubur Rahman Billah said, “We want to build a knowledge-based society, so we shall all play our desired role in supporting this journey. I am sure you will all be able to effectively apply the pedagogical approaches that you have learnt from this training in your respective schools through your teaching methods and classroom management skills and eventually our students will benefit from it.”

David Maynard said, “One of the things we want you to recognise out of this training is that English is very important, and it is great that you have learnt English. It is also about the way in which you teach, the methodology, and how you engage children.”

“15-20 years ago, in the schools it was very teacher centred and the children sat passively and listened and wrote down. Hopefully, now you have learned new methodologies, new techniques, and new ways of engaging the children, so they are actively involved and actively engaged in the learning process,” he added.

Mirza Hasan Khasru said, “If our children in the schools can learn better English, only then we will achieve success for this training programme. So, you shall all go back to your schools and disseminate the knowledge you have gathered to your colleagues as much as possible for better results.”

As a part of the government’s 2018 Primary Education Development Programme 4 (PEDP4), the British Council had been awarded the large training programme initiative ‘English for Primary Teachers’ (EPT). Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approved the project with utmost priority on developing children’s English learning proficiency.

The project is aligned with the 2030 SDG 4, where the British Council was recognized as the best partner. In the following year, the government approved TMTE – the Tk 47 crore project – pivoting the national education reformation plans.