The British Council celebrated the long- running CBB English Language Teacher Training Project at a ceremony at the Ministry of Education recently.

The project, which has been running since 2005, draws to a close this year. It grew out of six weekend workshops around the country and developed into the annual delivery of English language teacher training to approximately 200 English language teachers nationwide.

More than 2,000 teachers have been trained through this project impacting on over 310,000 pupils. The course is a distance teacher training program with study sessions run by the trainers at the 31 RESCs (Regional English Support Centres) across the country leading up to the University of Cambridge Teaching Knowledge Test.

Speakers at the event included Professor K. Kapila C. K. Perera, Secretary to the Minister of Education, Ms Roshanie Moraes, CBB President, British High Commissioner, Sarah Hulton and Ms. Louise Cowcher, Director Education and English, British Council.

The project was not able to have its annual awards ceremony because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Instead the Cambridge Teaching Knowledge Test and British Council teacher training certificates were given to the teachers at their RESCs. A collage of photographs taken during these smaller ceremonies were displayed at the event. The RESC mentors attended were given certificates for their work on the project.

The publication, A Celebration of the CBB Teacher Training Project: 2005-2020 – Case Studies from across the country by the Council for Business with Britain (CBB) and the British Council, was launched at the event. The project’s legacy is the cadre of trainers and teachers it created who then impacted on hundreds of thousands of pupils. This publication is a collection of their personal stories.

Their stories show children becoming more confident in their use of English and becoming more motivated to use the language. Teachers also cited the increase in their pupil marks in end of term tests and in O and A levels. The case studies clearly illustrated the move from teacher to student centred classrooms and a corresponding increase in teacher and student confidence.

The event also showcased this year’s addition to the project in the form of an employability poster competition. Teachers on the project worked with their classes to produce a poster on a topic connected to employability. These posters were shortlisted by the RESCs, then by the British Council, and the finalists were selected by members of the CBB committee. The winning teachers whose classes submitted the successful posters received their awards. The posters were on display at the event and also included in the case study publication.

Roshanie J. Moraes, President, CBB, said “this was CBB’s contribution to upskilling the future workforce of Sri Lanka in the English Language and we are extremely proud to have positively impacted a large number of teachers and students through this in the last 15 years. We hope the teachers and the mentors take this program forward and engage in continuous development and continue to serve our society”.

Mark Prothero, CEO of HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives, the principal sponsor, emphasized the importance of the project, saying, “The importance of developing English literacy skills is a highly-topical and necessary national debate. It is important for the learning community, in particular the teachers, to foster a generation of students who can use the language as a base in their future careers. HSBC has been the principal sponsor of this project since 2006 and we are very proud of what we have achieved with the program.”

Louise Cowcher, Director Education and English of the British Council said, “This has been a key project in supporting young people develop their language skills, which is vital for enhancing their employability.

“Over the lifespan of the project 2,352 teachers have developed their professional skills to internationally benchmarked standards with the benefits passed on to approximately 310,400 secondary students. This is indeed an achievement to celebrate with CBB and the Ministry of Education!”