What is project NIITE?
National Initiative to Improve Teaching in English (NIITE) is a three year project jointly designed and implemented by British Council Nepal and the National Centre for Educational Development (NCED). The objective of the project is to improve the classroom performance of teachers of English and other subjects in EMI settings in government schools. To ensure continuity of the project the project trainings are being integrated into NCED’s regular teacher training system – TPD.
In the three years starting from January 2015, the project will benefit teachers from all 75 districts of Nepal with 7000 teachers receiving the training for the first year. In addition, 450 teachers from Jhapa, Nawalparasi and Surkhet will receive additional 5 days training to improve their skills on communicative teaching practices as the three pilot districts for the first year.
Ongoing Project Activities
The project is based on a cascade model with 105 master trainers identified jointly by British Council and NCED from all 75 districts and trained by the British Council’s national and International trainers. These master trainers then train teachers in their districts, or, if demand arises in other districts (specially focusing on the pilot districts in the first year) with trainings divided into six days of face to face training, three days of action research activities and 1 day of mentoring and counselling.
Trainings for Y1 are almost complete in districts across the country. In the next few months master trainers will focus on delivering an extra 5 days of training to teachers from pilot districts. This training will focus on familiarizing teachers with self-access materials to help develop their teaching skills.
Teaching Materials used
The trainings are carried out using the following teaching materials apart from other regular readily available resources:
- Project NIITE Manual - The British Council in collaboration with NCED has developed an extensive manual for the project that is being used by all master trainers and teachers for the training sessions. It is designed to benefit all subject teachers teaching in English at government schools.
- Flash Cards - A set of flash cards has been specially developed and printed for all master trainers to use at their training sessions and all teachers receiving training to use it their classrooms.
- Activity Book – A copy of the internationally acclaimed activity book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle will be distributed to all the master trainers and teachers expected to be reached in the first year.