Gujarat English Language Development Programme (GELDP)

The project aimed to build capacity of teachers and officials of the Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) who are involved in the teacher training; this included: 

• enabling the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) to plan, manage and support local communities to practice independently as an alternative to traditional cascade models of training 
• enabling teachers to organise, form and implement local communities to practice both digitally and face-to-face to improve their quality of teaching and build on their continuing professional development. 

• Selection of teacher educators: To implement the cascade model of teacher training, teacher educators (TEs) were selected through a rigorous selection process which included an online application form to assess applicants' interest and motivation, pedagogical knowledge and teaching experience. This was followed by a telephonic interview to make the final selection.
• Teacher educator training: The focus of this activity was on the development of facilitation skills for Teacher Activity Group (TAG) meetings, and training and mentoring skills. This emphasis ensured that  90 teacher educators across districts could cascade teacher training programmes effectively in addition to supporting and mentoring teachers. Teacher educators received 14 days of face-to-face training in Year 1 and 12 days of training in Year 2.
• Teacher training: The trained teacher educators facilitated a total of 15 days of face-to-face training for teachers (five days in Year 1 and ten days in Year 2) for 2000 teachers. Training focused on learner-centred methodology, English language proficiency and raising awareness about approaches to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and related resources available. Furthermore, the emphasis was on practical and experiential tasks that teachers could adapt and use in their classrooms.
• Training for Head-teachers and administrators: Annual workshops on business communications and project management for 50 administrators / Head-teachers from districts were conducted to enable them to understand the project and support its implementation. These trainings covered project management, soft skills and English business communication skills.
• Teacher Activity Groups: Monthly cluster-level Teacher Activity Groups (TAGs) were set up, facilitated and sustained by the teacher educators (from Year 2). Each TAG comprised a Teacher Educator and 25 teachers and were held once a month for three hours.
• Online e-moderated and self-access courses: British Council online courses were offered to teacher educators and teachers involved in the project. The courses ensured continuing engagement and learning of these stakeholders between the two phases of face-to-face training.
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning: This included baseline and endline classroom observations of teacher educators, assessment of learning during training activities; focus groups with teacher educators, teachers and learners and a reporting structure framework for administrators and officials.

Teacher educators

• 96 per cent stated that they were doing things differently in their classroom as a result of training on the project
• 81 per cent engaged with digital and/or non-digital resources to implement their professional development objectives as TEs and language teachers 
• 76 per cent considered themselves as a trained cadre of skilled and experienced TEs with improved facilitation skills for TAGs and teacher training 

Teachers

• 97 per cent were satisfied with project activities like TAG meetings and face-to-face teacher training 
• 94 per cent increased use of digital communities for professional development
• 77 per cent were happy with the functioning of TAG meetings 
• 87 per cent agreed to have adopted different teaching methods learnt by attending teacher training on the project. 

 “GELDP has boosted teaching learning experience among teachers and TEs. TE’s received teaching learning materials like training modules, online resources from British Council etc. which will be useful for them in many ways for CPD. TEs of GELDP have now also become facilitators and state resource group members for English language for DIET and  GCERT” - District Coordinator,  Dr Dipesh Asondariya, DIET – Jamnagar 

“This project has changed me from top to toe in my English language teaching and teacher training as well. Now non-English teachers are also highly motivated to teach and learn English. As a result of this training, my learners have become more active and interested in learning English.” - Shailja A. Parmar, TE, Amreli 

“Being a Teacher Educator (TE) on the Gujarat English Language Development Project (GELDP) has been a great opportunity for me. I have come to know many new methods and techniques of teaching. My knowledge regarding methodology has definitely improved. It has brought about a great change in my personality.” - Nirav Patel, TE, Mehsana 

“Good project, helpful in developing level of teaching English in Gujarati medium school”- Riddhi K Joshi, TE, Jamnagar