The British Council and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan have joined hands to improve the English language skills of students and teachers in Pakistan under their “Transforming English Language Skill” programme. A series of focus group discussions by the British Council in October 2010 led to the discovery that need for learning English language in the Higher Education sector is very different from the School and Colleges. Teachers face difficulty in delivering lectures in English and students find it difficult to understand them. Naturally, they are then inclined to translate the subject matter into native languages and knowledge is lost in translation.
A Needs Analysis Study was carried out by the Open University, UK in Pakistani universities to scope the need of English Language in Pakistani higher education sector.
Building on the recommendations of the Needs Analysis study, content for four modules; English for Academic Purpose [Student Module for first year undergraduate students], English for Employability [Student Module for final year undergraduate students], Professional Development for teachers teaching through medium of English [Teacher Module for their professional development] and Master Trainers Module was decided.
This programme will initially be piloted in following universities of Pakistan followed by a National roll out covering 1.8 million students and over 15,000 teachers;
- Azad Jammu Kashmir University
- Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences
- Government College University, Faisalabad
- Government Postgraduate College for Women, Satellite Town, Rawalpindi
- International Islamic University
- Islamia University, Bhawalpur
- Lasbella University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences
- Riphah International University
- Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Sheringal
- University of Malakand
- University of Karachi
- University of Sindh
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