Punjab English Language Teaching Initiative (PELTI)

The project aimed to: 

• develop the English language teaching skills and language confidence of 3,000 secondary level English language teachers 
• establish a skilled and experienced cadre of 160 master trainers in order to build the capacity of the RMSA to deliver effective in-service teacher training during and beyond the life of this project.  

• Setting up a core committee to act as a steering group for the lifetime of the project and included mid-level and senior level government post holders, the academic and operational project management teams from the British Council, affiliated government bodies including State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Punjab, master trainers and teachers. 
• Master trainer selection and training: The British Council conducted a rigorous selection process and shortlisted 190 master trainers who then received 24 days of training in a range of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) tasks and resources to develop their use of learner-centred classroom approaches, English language proficiency and training skills. 
• Materials development: Academic materials for the project were closely aligned to the Punjab secondary school textbooks and the recommendations of the National Curriculum Framework (2005), the Punjab Curriculum Framework (2013), the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (2009) and other key Government of India education policies. 
• Teacher training: 3,000 secondary teachers received 15 days of training in a range of CPD tasks and resources to develop their use of learner-centred classroom approaches and English proficiency. 
• A project orientation workshop orienting 31 district administrators in the planned programme outcomes and objectives was conducted in March 2014.  
• An Edusat briefing session was conducted for 3,000 headteachers and officials in August 2015 to orient the headteachers on ways to support their teachers in implementing programme outcomes in the classroom. 
• A one-day introductory Teacher Education Planning Guide Workshop was conducted in March 2016 for 40 principals, lecturers and officials from District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), government in-service teacher training institutes and secondary schools and focused on ways to design and plan effective teacher education interventions 
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Multiple monitoring and evaluation data tools and techniques were used to collect data to assess participants’ level of engagement, learning and application of learning, classroom practice and behaviour. 

• As a legacy of the PELTI programme, the RMSA now has a cadre of 170 master trainers who have developed their knowledge and practice of English language teaching at the secondary level, their training skills and their experience of facilitating in-service teacher training 
• Around 3,000 teachers attended 15 days of teacher training (five days/year) during the project 
• Observation data shows that, by year 3, master trainers were meeting or exceeding expectations in 59 per cent of agreed performance standards. This was a considerable improvement on year 1 data when only 42 per cent of standards were met and none were exceeded  
• There was similar improvement seen in teachers’ practice. By year 3, three times as many performance standards were being met as at baseline and at the other end of the spectrum, while over half of standards were not met at all at baseline, only 20 per cent were not met by year 3.  

'The project started in 2011, and since then approximately 6,000 English and Social Studies teachers of Punjab have been trained under this project per year. The programme helps the teachers to understand that in a communicative classroom, the students will have more talking time than teachers. Teachers have been trained practically during training by assigning them tasks in pair and groups thereby teaching them classroom management which will help them teach English to students more easily.' - Sikandar Singh Maluka, Punjab Education Minister

‘The most interesting session was guided action research planning, because I finally made an action research by myself and showed it to our trainer who helped where needed and I am confident to put it into action in my class.’ -- Sushma Sharma, PELTI Master Trainer from Jalandhar

‘One thing that I learnt today and will try when I get back to my school is … the value of CPD, reflection and feedback as it helps us in our personal and professional development. I also learnt the advantages of having the right body language and an impressive way of presentation to interact our learners. One thing I talked to another teacher about today was … about online apps, networking and digital material which can help us in being innovative. With the use of these technologies we can make our teaching more effective.’

‘PELTI techniques have helped learners understand the text of lessons from their books, and have made it easier for them to memorise questions and answers.’