" Britons were ready to take classes free of cost and even bore the cost of the air tickets. Only local accommodation has been provided by the municipality."
http://m.indianexpress.com/
Malappuram goes to London to get govt school English teachers
Posted: Sun Nov 20 2011, 09:03 hrs
Nilambur: It was in 1990 that Malappuram, the district with the highest number of Muslims in the country after Murshidabad in West Bengal, decided to turn its fortunes around with education. Census 2011 put the literacy figures for the district at 93.55 per cent; this March, it registered 88.55 pass percentage in Class X exams. Now this Kerala district has gone one step further, flying down native Britons to teach the English language to its next generation of students.
Four of them have joined as special English teachers at the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School at Nilambur, under ‘Sadgamaya’, a project jointly implemented by the Education Department and the Nilambur municipal body, with UNICEF association. Two more will fly down from the UK next month to teach English to students of Classes VIII and IX till February end.
The teachers were selected through an interview held in London, that weaned out anyone not a natural Briton (to avoid varying accents). They underwent a brief workshop before taking up the assignment.
Nilambur municipal chairman Aryadan Shoukkathu, an award-winning film producer and a Congress leader, says it is perhaps the first time in the state that teachers from Britain have been brought to teach English.
General Education Secretary M Shivashanker said they placed an advertisement in a leading travel magazine in the UK to attract the teachers, a clever idea considering Kerala’s popularity as a tourist destination.
The idea was to attract professionals who take a break from work to travel and were interested in spending their vacations contributing to society. “Some of the teachers’ training institutes in the UK which I had visited were ready to provide more people in this manner,” says Shivashanker.
“The advertisement, which demanded teaching experience from the applicants, evoked 200-odd expressions of interest. To get English teachers from Britain who could teach a correct and uniform accent, we avoided applications from German and French citizens living in the UK. The six teachers were selected after interviewing 10 shortlisted applicants.”
Municipal chairman Shoukkathu says the Britons were ready to take classes free of cost and even bore the cost of the air tickets. Only local accommodation has been provided by the municipality.
One of the teachers, Imelda Devlin, who was an education advisor at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, says there are many retired professionals in the UK interested in teaching English. “Many retired due to economic factors without exhausting the desire to teach,” says Devlin, who took voluntary retirement last year. “I had been to India as a tourist. After retirement, I had been missing my classes. One of my friends intimated me about the project.”
Management consultant Andrew Allport and his wife Beverly, a college teacher, see the assignment as an opportunity to spend time in Kerala. The project period also coincided with the onset of winter in the UK. “We may be able to get new ideas in teaching,” say the couple.
Carle Flack, the youngest in the group, has done a course at the teachers’ training institute. A project conservator in a museum, Flack says: “During the free hours at school, we interact with the students to help neutralise their Malayalam accent.”
Seeing the level of interest from both sides, officials are now planning to implement the project in 70-odd schools in the region next.
http://m.indianexpress.com/
Malappuram goes to London to get govt school English teachers
Posted: Sun Nov 20 2011, 09:03 hrs
Nilambur: It was in 1990 that Malappuram, the district with the highest number of Muslims in the country after Murshidabad in West Bengal, decided to turn its fortunes around with education. Census 2011 put the literacy figures for the district at 93.55 per cent; this March, it registered 88.55 pass percentage in Class X exams. Now this Kerala district has gone one step further, flying down native Britons to teach the English language to its next generation of students.
Four of them have joined as special English teachers at the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School at Nilambur, under ‘Sadgamaya’, a project jointly implemented by the Education Department and the Nilambur municipal body, with UNICEF association. Two more will fly down from the UK next month to teach English to students of Classes VIII and IX till February end.
The teachers were selected through an interview held in London, that weaned out anyone not a natural Briton (to avoid varying accents). They underwent a brief workshop before taking up the assignment.
Nilambur municipal chairman Aryadan Shoukkathu, an award-winning film producer and a Congress leader, says it is perhaps the first time in the state that teachers from Britain have been brought to teach English.
General Education Secretary M Shivashanker said they placed an advertisement in a leading travel magazine in the UK to attract the teachers, a clever idea considering Kerala’s popularity as a tourist destination.
The idea was to attract professionals who take a break from work to travel and were interested in spending their vacations contributing to society. “Some of the teachers’ training institutes in the UK which I had visited were ready to provide more people in this manner,” says Shivashanker.
“The advertisement, which demanded teaching experience from the applicants, evoked 200-odd expressions of interest. To get English teachers from Britain who could teach a correct and uniform accent, we avoided applications from German and French citizens living in the UK. The six teachers were selected after interviewing 10 shortlisted applicants.”
Municipal chairman Shoukkathu says the Britons were ready to take classes free of cost and even bore the cost of the air tickets. Only local accommodation has been provided by the municipality.
One of the teachers, Imelda Devlin, who was an education advisor at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, says there are many retired professionals in the UK interested in teaching English. “Many retired due to economic factors without exhausting the desire to teach,” says Devlin, who took voluntary retirement last year. “I had been to India as a tourist. After retirement, I had been missing my classes. One of my friends intimated me about the project.”
Management consultant Andrew Allport and his wife Beverly, a college teacher, see the assignment as an opportunity to spend time in Kerala. The project period also coincided with the onset of winter in the UK. “We may be able to get new ideas in teaching,” say the couple.
Carle Flack, the youngest in the group, has done a course at the teachers’ training institute. A project conservator in a museum, Flack says: “During the free hours at school, we interact with the students to help neutralise their Malayalam accent.”
Seeing the level of interest from both sides, officials are now planning to implement the project in 70-odd schools in the region next.
