Over the last year, 120 Teacher Educators from 36 of Bihar’s 38 districts have completed the British Council’s English for Teaching course, and a total of more than 170 Teacher Educators have been selected to take part in the Bihar Language Initiative in Secondary Schools (BLISS) programme.
On 3 July at Patna, Mr P.K. Shahi, Minister of Education, Government of Bihar and Mr Rob Lynes, Director British Council India and Minister of Cultural Affairs British High Commission in India, addressed the gathering and awarded certificates to over 100 teacher educators from across the state who have successfully completed a 135-hour course over the past year which combines language learning with development of teaching skills.
Others who addressed the teachers were State Project Director, RMSA Bihar Mr Rahul Singh, Director British Council East India, Ms Sujata Sen, Senior Deputy Programme Manager, DfID India, Ms Sandeepa Sahay and Mr Michael Connolly, British Council English Language Advisor.
BLISS is a two-year project focused on the development of secondary school English teaching in Bihar. In partnership with the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the Bihar Department of Education, the BLISS project was initiated in January 2012.
BLISS aims to address the needs of the teacher educators, teachers, learners and the wider community in Bihar by providing access to high quality teaching and learning materials as well as increased awareness of the value of English for employability. It aims to aid the Bihar State Government in devising a coherent, high quality and sustainable model for teacher development which will improve the quality of instruction and ultimately raise the level of English proficiency among both teachers and learners in the state enabling the Bihar State Government to achieve part of its reform agenda.
Rob Lynes, Director British Council India, said: “Over the past year we have worked towards establishing a core group of Teacher Educators across districts who will act as a support network, an academic resource and as a teacher-training cadre for school and district based teacher development. We are happy to award the successful candidates with certificates. We value their role as educators and hope this training will provide opportunities for their students, their fellow teachers, and themselves in meaningful ways that are relevant to their needs and context.”