EIABD

English in Action (EIA) was formally launched at the Westin Hotel on 11 March 2010. EIA is a joint venture of the Bangladesh Government and the UK Government designed to change the way in which English is acquired by children, young people and adults in Bangladesh.

EIA is under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MOPME) and works closely with the Ministry of Education (MOE). The project has been launched with the expectation that English as a global language will benefit the citizens of Bangladesh to access better employment opportunities at home and abroad and also give incentives to young people for accessing higher education overseas. The nine year project is designed to change approaches to learning English by working with education partners in Bangladesh to reach 25 million primary and secondary school children and adult learners. It also emphasizes the development of professional skills of teachers through media players and other audio visual technology and supplementary materials.

The launch event began with a welcome speech by the Secretary of MOPME, followed by an in-depth presentation of the English in Action Project by the EIA Team Leader Marc van der Stouwe.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of the project, British High Commissioner Stephen Evans said “English is becoming an international language. One of the driving factors clearly has been globalisation, the spread of mass methods of communication, more importantly the expansion of the internet. “

The launch took a festive appearance as there were a number of EIA stalls with its red, white and black branding colours highlighting EIA’s “Changing Learning, Changing Lives“ slogan. One of the stalls showcased the materials developed, including the content on the IPods, charts, posters, flash cards, teachers’ guides and others. The next stall showed BBC Janala’s media and adult learning products. There was also an EIA Teachers stall where live demonstration of the classroom context with teachers and students were shown to the guests. The young students were excited to interchange greetings and have informal chats in English with the visitors. This brought a very lively atmosphere to the event. EIA Teacher Development Coordinators were answering the queries of the visitors at the stall and tried to convey the vision, mission and objectives of the Project.

We look back at a very successful event, in which a large number of education stakeholders participated. The launch was chaired by Mr. Abu Alam Md. Shahid Khan, Secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MOPME) with Dr. Afsarul Ameen, the MOPME Minister, as Chief Guest. Other speakers were Mr. Stephen Evans, British High Commissioner, Md. Sirazul Islam, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ms. Mahbubun Nahar (EIA Project Director on behalf of the Government) and the EIA Team Leader Mr. Marc van der Stouwe.

A major research collaboration between the Institute of Educational Research (IER), Dhaka University, The Open University, UK and the English in Action (EIA) base is currently on the way. The aim of this consortium is to explore teachers’, students’ and community’s perceptions, practices, experiences and the impact of communicative English language teaching and learning, including the factors which influence the processes. The collaboration also intends to develop a joint institutional capacity building mechanism through this effort.

The research, monitoring and evaluation framework is a key component of the English in Action programme. The collaboration with the IER will contribute to this framework through an understanding of the extent to which the programme’s achievements are both scalable and sustainable.  The focus of the collaboration has two main strands:

• Jointly conduct a range of EIA research studies in the 21 EIA pilot upazilas spread over 6 divisions; and
• Develop an MPhil programme related to these studies and organize collaborative research and professional development activities.

The joint collaboration aims to develop the research capacity at upazila levels. The program hopes to understand the local challenges existing at the grass root level through various research components.

English in Action Project was invited by DFID to participate in the Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF ) which was held  on February 15^th  and 16^th 2010 in Dhaka. The two day meet was the Government’s need to seek donors’ endorsement of the Revised Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper II. The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the event at Bangabandu International Conference Centre in the city.

Six business sessions were conducted – three on development strategies, governance and human development including PRSP II, 5 year plan, health and education, energy and power, agriculture, food security and water resources.

 The Fair encouraged various ministries of the Government of Bangladesh to showcase their initiatives including projects that came under their schemes. A number of international organizations also participated such as the European Commission ( EU ), United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP ) and others as well as foreign embassies.

It was an opportunity for all stakeholders to connect and view what programmes and projects are now ongoing in Bangladesh.

Another event that took place from March 2^nd to 6^th 2010 was the Digital Innovation Fair 2010 which was also steered by the Government of Bangladesh. The English in Action Project was invited by the Ministry of Education ( MOE ) to participate under their wing. This event was initiated by the Prime Minister’s Office with the objective to promote access to information through creating a “ Digital Bangladesh “ so that the citizen’s of the country understand how technology can enhance communications in all sectors. All the Ministries of the Government of Bangladesh participated in this event as well as the private sector.  The stalls showcased the need for ICT in day to day life.

With the aim to create greater understanding about the English in Action Programme and it’s school based interventions, 30 Community Orientation Workshops were organized in 20 selected upazilas. Workshops were conducted separately for Primary and Secondary sectors between December’09 and January’10. Representatives from 6 local education stakeholder groups including Head Teachers, Parents, School management committee members, Govt. education officials, Local educationalist and Media and NGO representatives participated in this half day orientation session. The workshops created great enthusiasm and interest among the stakeholders about EIA and the participants also expressed their commitment to extend full support and cooperation while implementing EIA activities in the field.

A brief about EIA activities including, the partners, teaching-learning and teacher professional development materials, teacher support package and use of technology (mp3 players and speakers) were the main highlights of the workshop. However, there was also room for interaction and discussion where participants were able to share their views of current challenges in the education sector broadly, inside the classrooms (in relation to both physical facilities and quality), Govt. policies and also seek clarifications about the EIA programme – how it has taken the realities into account.

The level of enthusiasm and commitment among the participants were highly encouraging. Their views, suggestions and commitment are invaluable for English in Action.