Press Release / Education / BLISS teacher development project celebrates four years with multipleachievements

BLISS teacher development project celebrates four years with multipleachievements

BLISS teacher development project celebrates four years with multipleachievements

• Completed 140 hour English for Teaching foundation programme focused on language proficiency and methodology for 200 Teacher Educators across Bihar
• 10 days of training using newly designed resources delivered by Teacher Educators to more than 2,000 teachers in all districts of the state
• Research conducted into English within the Bihar education system and attitudes to English in the state

Patna, 9 March, 2016: The Bihar Language Initiative for Secondary Schools (BLISS) run by the British Council in partnership with the Government of UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the Bihar MadhyamikShikshaParishadhas completed four years and is celebrating it through a Milestone Event in Patna on 9 March.
This event will celebrate project achievements to date which have resulted from close cooperation between the British Council India, Department for International Development (Dfid), Bihar MadhyamikShikshaParishad and the Ministry of Education, Bihar.
The key achievements include:
• Completion of 140 hour English for Teaching foundation programmefocussed on language proficiency and methodology for 200 Teacher Educators
• Completion of trainer training modules for Teacher Educators, as well as orientation to new English for All Bihar teacher training resources
• Delivery of Block 1 and Block 2 (10 days total) to more than 2,000 teachers in all districts of the state
• Familiarisationprogrammes for ELT practitioners, including the Teacher Educators and SCERT, on Teacher Development films
• Support for local English clubs set up by Teacher Educators
• LearnEnglish Schools DVD, a self-access learning tool aligned to the local curriculum, at 61 schools across the state and a full monitoring and evaluation programme completed at eleven of these schools
• Research conducted into English within the education system in Bihar and societal attitudes to English, as well as an external evaluation of project impact.



The research initiatives, all outputsfromthe BLISS project, include:
• ‘Social Attitudes to English in Bihar’ - Dr David Hayes, in collaboration with EvalDesign
• ‘English in Education: Bihar Profile’ - British Council, in collaboration with Pratham
• preliminary findings of an external impact evaluation by Dr Christopher Tribble.
Sujata Sen, Director East India, British Council,said, “It is with the support of partners like Bihar MadhyamikShikshaParishad, the Ministry of Education, Bihar and the Department for International Development (Dfid) that we have been able to achieve all the milestones of this project, which we launched in January 2012. We hope the initiative has helped improve the quality of teaching and ultimately raise the level of English proficiency among teachers and learners in the state. It’s been an amazing journey with more than 200 Teacher Educators and 2,000teachers so far, and we hope to achieve our mission within the coming year.”
BLISS Teacher Educator Conference: 21 March 2016
The British Council will also hold the BLISS Teacher Educator conference in Patna on 21 March 2016. This will give the Teacher Educators from the project an opportunity to give presentations to colleagues on their learning and personal achievements. It will also allow them to share ideas and opinions with each other and raise awareness on the future of BLISS and ways in which the project can be made sustainable.
The conference will be held at Chanakya Hotel, Patna from 9.30 a.m. to – 4.30 p.m.
More about BLISS
British Council, in association with UK Department of International Development (DfID) and the Bihar Department of Education, has been successfully running the Bihar Language Initiative for Secondary Schools (BLISS) since January 2012. The project was co-funded by DFID and the British Council and will come to an end in March 2017.
The BLISS vision is to create a coherent, high-quality and sustainable model for English teacher development at secondary level in Bihar which will improve the quality of instruction and ultimately raise the level of English proficiency among both teachers and learners in the state. The effort is to ensure that English language teachers and teacher educators will have the necessary language and practical teaching skills to achieve the NCF (2005) and BCF (2008) goals, working within a supportive and systemised professional development framework.
More than 200Teachers Educators have been selected and gone through a foundation programme focusing on their own language skills, interactive and communicative teaching methodologies, and a trainer training programmer. They are in the process of delivering a newly designed teacher training programme (English for All in Bihar) to 3,200 secondary school English teachers across the state. A range of continuing professional development activities have also been developed to support teacher education, including the co-creation of teacher development films and networking opportunities for Teacher Educators and administrators.
Note to editors
The event will include
• Presentations by British Council, key stakeholders and key partner organisations
• Summaries of work in progress on research initiatives
• Experience shared by a Teacher Educators on their CPD journey
• Convocation ceremony for Cohort 2 Teacher Educators
• Showcase project outputs including poster exhibition, teacher development resources, and showings of BLISS Teacher Development and English For All films

About the British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. We are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. We work in more than 100 countries and our 7,000 staff – including 2,000 teachers – work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the arts and delivering education and society programmes.

The British Council was established in India in 1948. The British Council is recognised across India for its network of 9 libraries and cultural centres. We offer a range of specialised projects in arts, education, exams, English language and society to audiences across India and more than 100,000 members. We also provide access to English language training and learning for both students and teachers, offer UK qualifications in India and enable opportunities to study in the UK.For information on our work in India, please visit www.britishcouncil.in

Contact information:
Shonali Ganguli, Head Communications British Council East India, T: +91 (0) 9836569944;
E: shonali.ganguli@in.britishcouncil.org

Vandana M, Associate Group Head, GolinOpinion, T: 9999479947; E:Vandana.M@golinopinion.in