Page 5 - ELG1601 Jul Issue 438

ELLatin America 2016

An EL Gazette supplement with the British Council: English language and international education

Peru’s Doors to the world stay open

hen decision-makers Liliana Burga reports that plans for a bilingual society are on course and heading for success
in Peru started talk-
Wing about their plans
to build a bilingual society – in happen. The National English ferent now. The game-changer
which all children can manage a Language Teaching and Learning is that teachers are coming to
foreign language, English being Policy – also known as English, Lima. The government funds
the priority – many of us thought Doors to the World – launched in everything – tickets for travel,
it was just another promise. But 2015 and since then students from food and accommodation – and
we were wrong. The idea that any over 1,600 schools in capital Lima a large number of tutors from the
nation could become bilingual by and some provinces have started UK and other English-speaking
2021 sounded too ambitious and a 45-hour school week, up from countries work with them, with
challenging to be true. Can this 35 hours, with two more hours a the government closely supervis-
really be achieved in just a few week devoted to studying English. ing all aspects of their training.
years? The benchmark looked too Roughly half a million students The dream of studying in
high compared to the reality of our have benefited, representing 28 English-speaking countries –
schools and the reality of schools per cent of the student body at especially the UK – is becoming
in neighbouring countries. secondary level in Peru. a reality for more young Peru-
Why were specialists and A massive programme of schol- vians. With all the resources
teachers so pessimistic? The arships was designed, and 1,000 and effort mobilised for both
2012 English Proficiency Index, students who have completed students and teachers training
an analysis of non-English- studies at public-sector universi- across the country, it is fair to
speaking countries around the ties are now studying English in Courtesy Bruce Tuten say that English has become the
world, showed that Peru was at a intensive courses. The initiative flagship subject in our schools.
low proficiency level, near that of is focused on boosting students’ With English teachers sent to
Vietnam or Turkey. And the Edu- communication-skill develop- both the US and the UK, and
cational Testing Service reported ment in the English language with LOOKING AHEAD Children at this Quispicanchi school will benefit from new scholarship programmes with students from the prov-
in 2013 that most Peruvian stu- the intention of broadening educa- inces trained in Lima by mostly
dents who sat the Toefl exam tional opportunities and accessing a month, where they attended a Peru is on course to meet this the private institution that won British tutors, the chances that
scored 86 marks or less, while the many scholarships that have professional development course. target. There was scepticism the contract couldn’t produce the bilingualism will be achieved in
the minimum required by inter- not been taken up because appli- With the support of the British when it was announced because number of teacher trainers neces- a few years are increasing. n
national universities to accept cants lack the minimum level of embassy in Peru, 150 Peruvian something similar has been tried sary to travel across the country to
applicants is generally 100. English – usually B2 or upper- teachers studied on a seven- before. Some years ago, the gov- train, evaluate and monitor teach- Liliana Burga is a freelance
For children at public schools intermediate level. week training course at King’s ernment launched a plan to train ers. In the end the project failed. writer of articles and a
it gets worse. English is not con- In May a scholarship for stu- College London in partnership English teachers across Peru, but Things are completely dif- teacher trainer in Peru
sidered a subject to be taught dents in the third and fourth with International House Lon-
from primary level (first to grade of secondary school was don and at the University of
sixth grade) so students start introduced, which is set to ben- East Anglia in partnership with
secondary school without any efit 6,500 students across Peru Nile, where they became famil-
knowledge of English. Things by giving them the opportunity iar with the latest techniques and
don’t get better at secondary to study English for two years at resources in ELT.
level because students only study one of the most prestigious lan- Additionally, 3,200 teach-
two or three hours of English per guage schools in our country. ers received online training
week. There is a huge differ- Teachers were also consid- thanks to Unesco, and now stu-
ence with students from private ered in this ambitious vision, dents have the opportunity to
schools, who usually study more and 800 of them studied in study using technology in the
than six hours of English per summer and winter schools classroom through dedicated
week from kindergarten. specifically designed for them, software installed in computers
Something had to be done. with tutoring by instructors from in 5,720 schools. The English,
When the ministry of educa- English-speaking countries – Doors to the World plan also
tion partnered with the Peruvian mostly the UK – who came to includes extending broadband to
National Scholarship Programme Peru exclusively for this purpose. cover all schools in Peru.
to take up the challenge, changes Over 230 teachers were also sent The final goal is to train
and improvements started to to Arizona State University for 280,000 teachers by 2021, and

Boycott by Brazil schools?

LANgUAgE SCHOOLS in Bra- schools which undertake to use their acquisition of Wall Street
zil are rumoured to be boycotting only Oxford materials are offered English in 2009; rumours that
ELT products from Pearson and teacher training in the method as Pearson is planning to pull out of
Oxford University Press (OUP) well as help with marketing for ELT publishing entirely remain
because of the two UK-owned student recruitment and retention. unsubstantiated. The Pearson
giants’ involvement in school No franchise fees are paid. Over press office failed to respond to
franchises, sources inside the 120 small independent language Gazette inquiries about a possible
country have told the Gazette. schools are members of the scheme decline in book sales to Brazil.
Smaller publishers, especially and, according to Luciane Ferreira, Although Brazil is fairly unique
National geographic Learning, managing director of OUP Latin in its addiction to method chains,
part of the Cengage Learning America, there are no current plans particularly in the junior sector,
group, are said to be benefitting. to expand the scheme or to export the trend to self-published course
However, OUP made clear the concept to other markets. materials is emerging elsewhere.
to the Gazette that it does not ‘As the franchising model In the UK, for example, it has been
have a franchise operation. became more and more dominant adopted not just by large chains
Although it does have a strate- in Brazil and the large chains like Kaplan, who have a tradition
gic partnership with a number began self-publishing and some of producing materials for their
of independent private language selling their materials on the open home market in the US, but even
schools through its Achieve market, we looked for a way to by fairly small summer school
Languages programme, no fran- protect our market share,’ Fer- operators, though quality varies.
chise fees are payable. reira told the Gazette. ‘We have The British Council inspection
It also said that it has no focused on working with small report from one summer school
evidence of a current boycott. independent language schools group notes, ‘Some teachers were
Although sales declined shortly who were threatened by the more and others less enthusiastic
after the launch of Achieve Lan- growth of the franchised chains.’ about the ... series, which essen-
guages in 2005, they have now In 2013 Pearson bought grupo tially comprise a collection of
risen back to previous levels. Multi, a large language school photocopies taken from current
Achieve Languages, which franchise operation, for $500 published course and skills books.
offers blended learning in both million as part of a long-term ‘They felt generally the …
English and Spanish, uses a know- strategy of direct involvement materials were not particularly
how transfer model, in which in education which predates coherent.’ n

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