The English for Education System (EES) team at the British Council Myanmar has been supporting the Ministry of Education in its efforts to reform and develop the nation’s education system and provision.

Through the collaboration between the British Council and the Ministry of Education, a remarkable support programme to English Language Teaching (ELT) in Myanmar has been established. As part of the programme, we provide a teacher training manager and a teacher trainer to work at the National Centre for English Language (NCEL) at Yangon University. Their role is to train lecturers, tutors from public Arts and Sciences Universities all across Myanmar as well as to provide guidance to Masters of English and Diploma in English Language Teaching students who have the potential to become future leaders in the area of English Language Teaching in Myanmar.

In the past, we have trained 150 tutors within the Ministry of Education’s UPFATE (Upskilling programme for Freshly Appointed Tutors of English) programme and DEPT (Department of Education Planning and Training) staff at the MoE. We also provided training for MERB staff in Naypyidaw in early 2013.

In July 2013, we donated £8,000 worth of ELT materials to the nine biggest Arts and Sciences Universities in the country. Prior to that in 2012, we donated £26,000 worth of ELT-related books to 55 institutions under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, including 20 universities, 20 Education colleges and 15 state schools.

In addition to the above support programmes, the EES team also provides training assistance to the Ministry of Social Welfare, the Ministry of Cooperatives and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The British Council has delivered four ELT training programmes for the ECCD centre principals, trainers and teachers of the Ministry of Social Welfare both in Yangon and Mandalay. It has also provided three training programmes on teaching methodologies to department heads, professors, lecturers and tutors from the Ministry of Cooperatives. Currently, the British Council has a number of trainers placed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, supporting its programme to train the Ministry’s team of sixty junior staff.