AY 2007-2008 Projects - South Asia

Country                       India
City                              Jaipur
Host Institution           Directorate of College Education Jaipur

Project Description
The government under the aegis of a dynamic female chief minister is on the brink of major economic development for which funds have been allocated to the education department to initiate innovation in education to make the courses more job oriented. The Directorate of College Education (DCE) has taken the initiative by introducing challenging and innovative schemes to provide and develop specialized skills in students of government and private colleges of Rajasthan called the Global Skill Enhancement Program. Some of the courses that are delivered under this scheme are in collaboration with the private sector, particularly the IT and BPO sectors. Job oriented certificate courses are being run successfully at various government colleges of Rajasthan. In addition to this the DCE has set up Knowledge Centres in 50 colleges to begin with. In the above context, developing communicative skills in English for students of Rajasthan is particularly important as overall the students have lower proficiency in English than other progressive states in India. The EL Fellow will be attached to the Directorate of College Education, Rajasthan. The main objective of training will be for all the college teachers in Rajasthan to deliver effective English language teaching at the college level. The Government will train the government college teachers and in the subsequent years train the remaining teachers. This project is envisaged as a 2 year project with one group of trainers trained in year 1 with at least 40% of teachers in the state colleges trained in year one. The remaining will be trained in year 2. All the teachers will be provided with training kits which should ensure a smooth delivery of further training. This project will help to revamp/modify the training manual, teachers’ hand book and the skills activity kit for lecturers to use in the classroom. This is an excellent example of making use of materials and training already produced for a specific context which can be tweaked to suit a similar context.

Project Objectives
To set up the system and structure for the project in consultation with the DCE and a focus group of ELT teachers/practitioners in Rajasthan and identify key needs of the lecturers in that state; to implement the project through the following activities in the first year: develop a training course on a learner centered/task based approach to teaching English fro communication; select and interview trainers to be trained; develop a training handbook and the skills development kit for trainers; conduct an intensive 2-3 week course for training the trainer for 25-30 teachers; conduct 4-5 training courses for college teachers with 30-40 in each course; monitor/support local trainers;  and conduct 2-3 training program for lecturers. Other objectives are to develop ESP courses in areas identified by the government which meet the special needs of the state. This would include use of the internet to improve communication skills. Specific modules on presentation skills, writing a CV, taking an interview, and improving conversation skills, etc. could be offered to the community at large by the teachers trained on this project. As a result the outreach would extend to young professionals who are looking to improve their skills and competence in communicating in English in all parts of the state.

About the Host Institution