Fund shortage to stop ELTIP?

Bureaucratic tangles and fund shortage are the main reasons for early conclusion of the 'much acclaimed' project, which is very 'effective' for English language teachers of schools, they said.

Meanwhile, ministerial orders to discontinue enrolment of trainee teachers have reached 'satellite resource centre' (training centres).

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This correspondent visited some high schools in Rangpur, Kurigram and Lalmonirhat and talked to English teachers about ELTIP.

They said the decision of the education ministry will hinder their English language training, which will affect students also.

Besides training on English language, the ELTIP gives professional support to teachers, they said.

The ministry had launched the ELTIP across the country to provide English language training to high school teachers so that students can develop four skills---- listening, speaking, reading and writing in English.

The ELTIP followed introduction of CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) as new syllabus prescribed by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) for all secondary and higher secondary schools. It was prepared by the ministry in collaborating with DFID.

Sixty-two satellite units were opened under seven regional resource centres in the country to facilitate training for 79000 high school teachers.

The first phase of the project from 1999 to 2002 included trainers' training abroad, setting up of regional and satellite resource centres and training of about 5000 teachers.

Due to fund shortage, all targeted teachers could not be brought under the training programme during the period.

A source in the project said that only 17 out of 62 satellite resource centres and four out of seven regional centres could be opened in districts.

Out of the 17 satellite centres, only six were set up in six districts of Pabna, Noagoan, Bogra, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Dinajpur.

As the time of the project was over without having targeted result, the ministry extended the project for two years, raising a fund of Tk 20 crore from all education boards.

The extended project aimed at training 42000 school teachers. But it failed to achieve the target due to shortage of resources. Only 7000 teachers could be brought under the programme in the second phase.

While taking to this correspondent, an English teacher of Rangpur Collectorate School and College on condition of anonymity said the communicative way of teaching language is a new technique and it needs sufficient training for teachers to cope with the new syllabus.

A teacher of Rangpur Zila School who attended the 13-day training under ELTIP at the local resource centre said the training is "very effective" for teachers to teach students.