The contribution of NGOs to English Teaching

The contribution of NGOs to Secondary Level English Teaching in Bangladesh with particular reference to BRAC

In order to keep pace with the changing trend of the globe the government of Bangladesh has taught English to the students from grade one to twelve as a compulsory subject and the method followed to teach this global language was grammar translation which produced graduates with a limited scale of accuracy but they remained away from developing the real communication skill in their practical life situation which impelled the government to introduce Communicative English in the secondary and higher secondary levels. When it was introduced in 1997, the necessity of imparting training to the teachers teaching English in secondary level was greatly felt. To address these national needs and to supplement the government effort to bring development in teaching learning process of English in the secondary education, BRAC conducted a survey and discovered the fact that the rural teachers were facing serious problems to deal with the newly introduced text ‘English For Today’ and the new approach to teach English. According to the needs analyses, BRAC developed training modules to bring the teachers into the fold of training so that they can deliver effective and fruitful English teaching in the light of Communicative Language approach. Modules were developed keeping pace with the standard and level of teachers. Two modules namely first and second module were developed for the teachers teaching in grade six to eight and another two modules for teachers teaching in nine and ten grades. After receiving first module for eighteen days they go back to their real classroom to apply the techniques learnt in the training and come to receive the second module training with new experiences and feedbacks of the training module. All the trainings are arranged in well equipped training centers of BRAC scattered across the country.
A diversified group of trainers conduct the trainings. The core group consists of BRAC Head Office staff who are having masters in English and got specialized training either at home or abroad. The field level trainers also have masters in English with some teaching background. It is to be mentioned that some field level trainers don’t have masters in English. They have come from other disciplines but they had to undergo a level test in which they proved their worth and received Training Of Trainers (TOT) under the guidance of local and foreign consultants and English language experts.
English For Today has been developed on the basis of four skills namely speaking, listening, reading, and writing. BRAC training aims to make the teachers acquainted with the four skills and the ways how to deal with different lessons and units of EFT in the real classroom scenario. Teachers are made acquainted with different techniques of teaching like pair work, group work, chain drill, choral drill, elicitation etc. to deal with the text and four skills and the teachers received training from BRAC show much confidence in teaching English than before. Removing the shyness of the students as well as of the teachers through training has partially been successful as trained teachers speak or try to speak English in the class which the monitoring and follow-up reports of BRAC say. The results in the public examination have also showed improvement in the trained teachers’ schools.
In this age of globalization we can in no way keep ourselves aloof from the common trend of the world. By virtue of globalization the people belonging to various cultures, caste, colour and language have come closer to each other. To develop communication and relation and satisfy their mutual needs they must have a common language. English has occupied that place. Not only that, English is now the language of commerce, science, technology, literature and job. The candidates with better performance in English get better jobs. People who know English are preferred by both local and foreign organizations. Bangladesh, being a developing country cannot but afford to prepare her future citizens so that they can grab the world job market facing global competition and using English comfortably. To reach this desired goal the knowledge of good English is a must. The secondary level poses to be the most important tier of education as it builds and determines the foundation of higher secondary and higher educational base of education. Teaching English in this level should be placed on a strong footing. In order to achieve that goal we must develop our secondary level English teachers who are the key players to bring change in this sector. Recently it has started receiving attention from the relevant corners in different forms. UKBET (United Kingdom and Bangladesh Education Trust) a local NGO conducts a training program for English teachers in Sylhet division. Volunteers Association For Bangladesh (VAB) ,another NGO also started imparting training to rural English teachers but their programe is very limited. Whereas, BRAC English training programme is going on in 60 districts of Bangladesh with the possibility of expanding it in another four districts. Language experts say an English teacher must have the ability and quality to speak English well to conduct an English class effectively and communicatively. Among other reasons producing graduates without giving them the necessary knowledge of English can be attributed to poor quality English teaching in the secondary level. It is the imperative of the time to bring change in this sector.
The concept of English teaching has changed quite a lot. In earlier times a silent class fully controlled by the teacher concerned appeared to be the most successful and effective one. But the research unveils the fact that students remaining passive in the class obtain only ten- percent benefit from the class. Whereas, students using their arms tongue, brain, mind and intelligence obtain seventy to ninety percent benefit from the class. Necessarily these kind of classes seem to be noisier than the earlier ones I mean the passive classes. But the fact is the more students will be involved in the activities, the more they are benefited. An English teacher must be well acquainted with these kinds of classes, techniques and classroom management. They must know how to engage all the learners in learning activities applying various sorts of techniques. An effective and intensive training programme can enable and enrich them to ensure effective teaching learning situation in the class.

BRAC has so far offered training to 9860 Secondary School English teachers. All these teachers belong to non-government schools. It is known to us that out of 18770 secondary schools in Bangladesh only 317 are fully run by the government and 18453 are non-government schools. It means a significant part of secondary schools is managed by the community. It can easily be guessed that the development of English of these teachers will exercise a great influence on the teaching learning process of English in the country and huge mass will be directly and indirectly benefited. So, this sector calls for an intensive research. Among the trained teachers the potential ones have been identified to develop them into trainers through special orientation and TOT. As the secondary level education context is well known to these teachers, they have started doing well in their own classes as well as in the training sessions which proves to be a new and exciting working field for them. Their hidden potentials have been bloomed through this process and they have been amply and have gained confidence in their profession. So, a competition has developed among other colleagues to become trainers. Actually, the teachers are getting professionally developed in disguise and this initiative of BRAC has received positive response from all corners. So far BRAC has developed 100 English trainers from non-government secondary school teachers. These teachers cum trainers have gained serious development in their professional field and BRAC English training is dominated by this group of trainers. The idea has been appreciated by the government and the government projects have also adopted the process to develop secondary level teachers into trainers to meet up the fast growing training needs.
The trained teachers try to conduct their classes in English which they used to do in Bengali. Teaching and making the students memorize only grammatical rules without thinking to prepare them to face the real and practical challenges of life were their main concern. No rural students were used to interact with the teachers in English. Now it is found the students of trained teachers’ schools interact with the teachers in English though not in correct English. At least they have started to communicate in English for they actually learn this language. The teachers have changed their outlook in teaching English to make it much more practical and life oriented. The result of the pubic examination also shows higher scores in the trained schools as passing English determines greatly the pass percentage in the national level. To bring further development and mobility in this regard, government and non-government cooperation needs be further intensified.

Md. Masum Billah
Programme Manager and Team Leader (English)
BRAC Education Programme, PACE
Cell: 01714-091431, 9355253 (home)
Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com, mmbillah@dhaka.net