15th February 2012:English in Action has awarded certificates and crests to primary and secondary teachers, head teachers and Upazilla Education Officers from Dhaka region. The certificates were given in recognition oftheir participation in the EIA Teacher Education Programme during the pilot phase of the project.

The chief guest of the event Mr.A.K.M. Abdul Awal Mazumder— Secretary, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education in his speech said, “I am impressed with the sincerity of English in Action project to help our teachers enhance the quality of English education”. He requested the teachers to use the innovative methods EIA has trained them in and help students learn Communicative English— which will benefit them in participating in the global community.He also said, “The teachers should adhere to the methods and ways shown by English in Action in their teaching”. He stressed that “if we are to compete in the global economy, we have to learn better English”.

Md. Farouque Jalil—Project Director EIA, Director (Policy & Operation), Directorate of Primary Education (DPE), in his speech highlighted the up-scaling phase of English in Action and informed that the project is spreading its intervention throughout the country in order to reach 12,500 teachers and 1,000,000 students in 105upazillas in the next 3 years.

Daniel Davis— Senior Programme Manager (Governance & Human Development), DFID Bangladesh, Marc van der Stouwe— Team Leader EIA, MourieNishad— Head of Teacher Training EIA, were also present in the ceremony.

A series of certificate ceremony events will be organized in Sylhet, Chittagong, Comilla, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal and Rangpur following today’s event.