GTZ takes STEPS to Jaffna

Over 2,500 public servants have done it. More than 70 Government organizations in the North and East and Colombo have benefited from it. Now Skills Through English for Public Servants - better known as STEPS - is coming to Jaffna. The STEPS Institute Jaffna was opened on October 19, 2009 by Governor Northern Province Major General Chandrasiri, with special guests Jutta Zinnel, Country Director GTZ and Gill Westaway, Country Director British Council Sri Lanka.

STEPS is the flagship training program of the Performance Improvement Project, a good governance and conflict transformation initiative for the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils, implemented by German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Now STEPS will find a permanent home when the STEPS Institute Jaffna is officially opened at Stanley College.

The STEPS Institute Jaffna is a dedicated training centre managed by the Northern Provincial Council and gives the STEPS program a permanent home in the North. It provides teachers and other public servants with a unique opportunity to develop their skills in good governance, effective communication and management - through English. The STEPS program, pitched at five different levels of English from elementary to lower advanced, is designed by GTZ and developed and delivered by the British Council.

'Before doing STEPS' said one participant who works at the office of the Regional Assistant Commissioner of Local Government, "I just carried out my duties with little thought of what lay behind the work. Now I understand the development issues that underpin our day to day tasks. It makes everything we do more meaningful and I think more efficient. And now I can tap into a network of contacts from other Ministries and Departments - people I met while doing the course. STEPS has linked us up."

The STEPS Institute Jaffna is part of the Northern Provincial Council's vision to create a quality centre for the on-going professional development.

It targets key managers, administrators and teachers of English and English medium Maths and Science. Giving STEPS a permanent home in the North neatly matches the plans of the GTZ supported Performance Improvement Project to make STEPS more sustainable. What began as a derelict building in the grounds of Canagaratnam MMV (Stanley College) has blossomed into a state-of-the-art training centre with joint funding from the ADB (through the North East Community Restoration and Development Project, NECORD), the German Government and the Northern Province Education, Culture and Sports Ministry.

It boasts four spacious classrooms that can accommodate the task-based, learner centred, participatory approach promoted through STEPS. In 2010, residential facilities will be added.

"The Government has declared this the year of English and ICT" said Ledchumanan Illangovan, Northern Province Education, Culture and Sports Ministry Secretary. "So we wanted to establish a training institute that would support teachers who work with English and ICT in the school system as well as managers who work with good governance in the public administration system. Through the STEPS Institute we can reach out to children and citizens alike."

Psyche Kennett, HRD adviser and team leader for the GTZ assisted Performance Improvement Project came up with the idea for Skills Through English for Public Servants back in 2005. "There's a lot of talk about providing English language skills for people in Jaffna - the STEPS Institute Jaffna is a pragmatic and effective way of doing just that. It has the capacity to put 800 people through four week intensive courses every year. The knock-on effect is pretty impressive. These are key people learning about key issues in social and economic development, conflict transformation, disaster management, equity and the environment. At the same time we've seen them make major improvements in their English language spoken fluency and written accuracy.

The subject matter is what all public servants should know but often don't until they do STEPS. The program's been running for four years now in the Eastern Province and for the last two years in Colombo. It's exciting to see the change in people and to see it happening so quickly, so effectively here in Jaffna too."

One of the unique features of STEPS is that all courses are delivered by highly experienced native English speaking trainers from the British Council, Sri Lanka. But the professionals behind the STEPS Institute don't find it unusual that the German Government is funding an English language program and utilizing the skills of the British Council to implement it. The collaboration mirrors the integrated nature of the STEPS courses themselves where participants from Sinhala and Tamil speaking communities, central and provincial government structures, rural and urban backgrounds, are integrated in the same class through the common denominator of their English language needs. English, so often in the past thought of as a divider, works here as a connector, encouraging participants from diverse backgrounds to sit down together and share ideas in an environment that encourages them to form new bonds and networks for the future.