The English for Education College Trainers’ (EfECT) scheme, announced at the end of March, seeks to improve English language development in the country and increase teaching quality in relevant educational institutions.

The scheme will mean about 1,300 local teacher trainers will be taught by 44 native English language teachers who will be placed in the country’s Education Colleges and Institutes of Education from early September 2014.

Improving their skills will raise the standard of training delivered to each of the 10,000 teacher trainees who pass through state education colleges each year, a British Council spokesperson told The PIE News.

Kevin McKenzie, the British Council Burma Director said that the EfECT project was unprecedented in terms of the British Council’s commitment to teacher training.

“[This] marks a significant and very practical step forward in education reform in this country,” he said.

“We are proud and excited to be bringing the UK’s English language teaching expertise to these crucial state educational institutions. We look forward to continuing to help Burma’s people engage more with the international community and achieve their life goals.”

The scheme is the first memorandum signed by the Ministry of Education in Burma and a foreign institution at ministerial level.

Teacher trainers will spend two years in the scheme first studying English language proficiency and then training and teaching methodology through English.

In addition to teaching 1,300 teacher trainers in the state’s basic education sub-sector, the British Council is training an additional 100 tertiary level educators in 23 institutions across the country.

The British Council also undertakes English language outreach work already via a network of 19 Millennium Centres across the country.