Indian scholarships to 40 Master Trainers

Dharma Sri ABEYRATNE

The Indian Government has granted 40 scholarships this year to train 40 English teachers as Master Trainers in spoken English at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad which is India's Centre of Excellence for English teaching in non-English speaking countries. The scholarships were granted at the request of the Presidential Task Force on English and IT and the Education Ministry.

Advisor to the President and Coordinator (English) of the Presidential Task Force Sunimal Fernando said 40 English teachers will be selected on an equitable basis from all nine provinces.

He said teachers, like the previous batch of 40 teachers sent to Hyderabad the previous year, will return to function as Master Trainers in spoken English.

Fernando said the 2008 batch of Indian scholarship holders trained at EFLU, Hyderabad have already trained nearly 1,400 English teachers from all nine Provinces in the delivery of spoken English to students since returning in December 2008.

They have also produced a new 'Teacher Guide and Training Manual in Spoken English' which will be launched by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on June 22 at Temple Trees.

The Accelerated English Teacher Training Program will also be launched by President Rajapaksa on June 22 aiming at training all 22,000 English teachers in Government schools to deliver Spoken English courses to students within 18 months through the latest state-of-the-art Indian teaching methodologies in Spoken English from EFLU Hyderabad suitably modified and localised for Sri Lankan conditions.

Syllabus and Curriculum change and modification of the Examination System to focus on Spoken English or Job-oriented English in place of the present Grammar - based English were directed by the Cabinet in January 2009.

Fernando said these changes cannot be practically effected until teachers are adequately trained to deliver Spoken English Courses.