On 16 May 2011 an official ceremony to mark the handover of the British Council ETTE project (English for Teaching: Teaching for English took place. The project was handed over to the Ministry for Education and Science of Kazakhstan and to the Republic in-service training Institute for leading and scientific-teaching staff and the Regional in-service training Institute.

These key Kazakh institutions are expected to continue running this project in order to improve the professional level of English language teachers in secondary schools in rural and remote areas.

The ETTE project, started by the British Council in 2008, aims to improve the quality of English language teaching in schools in Kazakhstan by improving the skills and competencies of teachers, as well as through providing access to English language resources for use in classrooms.

"The large-scale aim of making the people of Kazakhstan a trilingual nation requires a high level of Russian, Kazakh and English languages and knowledge of the latter is essential to the development of the knowledge economy - said Ardak Bekturova, Project manager of the British Council. She continued by stating that - ` the National Program for Education Development in Kazakhstan focuses on the task of improving English language teaching in schools so that the teachers who are trained can help students master the language at a high level."

Specialists from the UK have trained 35 trainers in Kazakhstan, as well as 6 teachers from Kyrgyzstan within the framework of the project in the following areas:

•ELT Methodology

•Materials design in compliance with international standards

•Adaptation of materials in local textbooks

•Mentoring

•Training of trainers and mentors

All the trainers trained within the project have delivered cascade training to teachers of English of secondary schools in remote areas in 15 regions of Kazakhstan and three regions of Kyrgyzstan using the premises of Regional in-service training institutes. At the moment, over 70% of English teachers in Kazakhstan have received direct or distance training within the ETTE project.

In addition to trainer training, the British Council has also equipped resource centres at Regional in-service training institutes, schools and associations of teachers of English in 7 regions of Kazakhstan and three regions of Kyrgyzstan with modern teaching materials that were used during the ETTE in-service courses.

Also, at the beginning of the ceremony, new British Council programmes, courses and digital innovations to improve the teaching and learning of English language were introduced.