EIABD.COM

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.