Graduation ceremony of the 5th cohort of primary teachers under the “Training of Master Trainers in English” (TMTE) project – a collaboration between the British Council and Directorate of Primary Education – was held recently at 12 Primary Teacher’s Training Institutes (PTIs) across Bangladesh.
The ceremony at the Dhaka PTI was graced by the presence of Mr. Dilip Kumar Banik, Additional Director General (PEDP4), Directorate of Primary Education, and Dr. Uttam Kumar Das, Director, Training Division, Directorate of Primary Education. Besides Dhaka, the ceremony was also livestreamed to Gazipur, Jessore, Barishal, Gopalganj, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Joypurhat, Comilla, Chittagong and Moulvibazar PTIs.
Activities under this latest cohort of TMTE had been designed by the British Council in collaboration with DPE for 544 primary teachers, who received training to improve English proficiency and exclusive guidance on communicative teaching practice and methodology to make English language learning more interesting and effective for primary school students. It was a 14-week programme.
Dilip Kumar Banik, Additional Director General (PEDP4), Directorate of Primary Education (DPE), said, “We need to impart proper education to our students which will help them to survive in this competitive world. The training British Council is delivering on behalf of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) and Directorate of Primary (DPE) Education will actually enable our students to contend anywhere they go.”
Dr. Uttam Kumar Das, Director, Training Division, Directorate of Primary Education (DPE), said, “Such wonderful training arrangement like TMTE has never happened before. We have provided this training to 1,733 teachers across Bangladesh in the last two years and it will be spread across 65,566 schools all over Bangladesh. If this training can be taken further to the community level, then our students could be prepared for a better future.”
As a part of the government’s 2018 “Primary Education Development Programme 4” (PEDP4), the British Council had been awarded the large training programme initiative “English for Primary Teachers” (EPT). Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approved the project with utmost priority on developing children’s English learning proficiency. The project aligned with the 2030 SDG 4, where the British Council was recognised as the best partner. In the following year, the government approved TMTE (a BDT 47 Crore project) pivoting the national education reformation plans. After some delay due to Covid-19, TMTE project was officially launched in January, 2021, by Education Minister Dr. Dipu Moni, MP.
TMTE stands out as a dedicated training project, where the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) engages with Primary Training Institutes (PTI) across the country.. British Council is already in discussion with the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and the Directorate of Primary Education on the next phase of TMTE and looks forward to continuing working with both in the years to come.
