The first Regional Teachers’ Association
Reported by Dr. Rajni Badlani
The first Regional Teachers' Association Conference was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 10-13 February 2004.
This conference was initiated, funded and supported by the British Council, ELT group, UK to encourage teachers
associations to work proactively towards the development of ELT in their respective regions .Teachers associations
could provide a forum for the development of the ELT fraternity in this region by engaging in activities which would
contribute to both , the development of teachers and ELT in general. 26 participants from India/Nepal/Pakistan/Sri Lanka/
Maldives/ Bangladesh/Indonesia/Nigeria representing Teachers' Associations and the British Council offices came together
to discuss the various issues related to the effective functioning of Teachers Associations.
The objectives of this conference were to
Objectives:
1. Promote sharing of ideas and best practice through a network of teacher associations
2. Maximise the impact of Teacher Association work through a sharing of resources
3. Empower individual Teacher Associations to be more effective in their national activity
4. Support the setting up of Teacher Associations in countries where they do not yet exist
Here is a day to day account of the proceedings of the conference
Day 1 : Dil Afroze, BELTA, Bangladesh
The morning session on the first day was started off by Jeremy who looked at the concept of Networking,
its aims and objectives. Starting with its dictionary definitions he went on to compare the benefits of good networking
with drawbacks of ordinary networking. He focused on the need of thinking laterally for identifying a good, solid model
that would help Solve problems of TAs. A virtuous cycle could evolve from increased membership, leading in turn to more
money for the Association to give rise to more activities, which again could help get more money for the Association.
Some processes for solving problems could be chat groups, forums, seminars, and training sessions with British Council or
other organizations as a key partner.
Jeremy's session was followed by individual TAs giving the history and description of their associations, and some of their
key problems and achievements. Interestingly, this session brought out some common issues on which TAs across the region
were seeking solutions, and aspects on which they could agree. Some of the issues raised were: problems in attracting and
renewing membership, of members of Executive Committees refusal to step down, of moving activities from the centre to the
regions, of policy making, of setting up links with private and public sectors. There were some success stories, particularly by
SPELT, about successful partnership with British Council, with Hornby Trust, of recognition as an independent and reliable
organization for advice on different aspects of English Language Teaching, and others.
TAs were paired together in the next session for discussion and pinpointing key issues that each TA would like to resolve.
Problems were identified and written up on a flipchart as each pair contributed. These were expression of the same problems
as mentioned before, e.g. renewal of membership, plan of succession of Executive members, mechanism for bringing about
change, sustainability, of motivating members to work, etc.
In the next activity, TAs were asked to write out the Mission and Vision statements of their Association. Discussion within
groups resolved the difference between the two concepts: while the mission statement should be quite general so that it did
not get outdated too quickly, the vision statement needed to be quite specific, spelling out what the achievable goals and the
time frame of what the TAs were trying to attain.
Zakia from SPELT followed this session with a discussion on the Guidelines of good practice in Associations, for attaining
credibility. Some specific points stressed for achieving this were, to have rules of conduct, written or unwritten, to be punctual,
to maintaining regularity in work and activities, to be systematic, and aim to maintain a non-hierarchical structure.
After this, TAs were paired up once again with partners different from before to discuss possible solutions for the problems
identified previously, and present it next day.
Day 2 Madhu Gurtu, FORTELL, Delhi
The sessions on the second day were in a way a continuation of the discussion of the main themes articulated on Day 1, viz.
(i) How could Teachers' Associations (TAs) arrive at some guidelines for good practices to achieve the objectives set by
their associations, and (ii) How could Tas find sponsors and donors for their programmes?
In the morning session on 12 Feb 2004 Jeremy Jacobson and Kandan Elango discussed the issue of support to TAs by
sharing information about international support networks available to TAs. The members were informed of the benefits of
IATEFL associateship for the TAs and their scheme of wide membership (WMS) for members of the associate TAs at a
considerably reduced rate. Jeremy Jacobson stressed the need for asking IATEFL to make the affiliation more beneficial
for the members. The second network available to TAs was ELTeCS membership, which links TAs and their members to
a wider network, and also provides funding for individual/collaborative projects on issues of language development and
social relevance.
Next we had a brainstorming session led by Tony O'Brien on various activities to enhance the working and outreach of TAs.
All of us tried to think outside the box, in the 'whimsical' mood as it were. The questions we discussed in groups were:
1. Who do the TAs need (reach out to) and who needs TAs?
2. What can we offer to the sponsors and what can they do for us?
3. How do we visualize the relationship between TAs and the other communities?
The groups came up with a number of responses, which can be collated in The following way:
TAs can reach out to teacher trainers, practicing teachers of English and across the curriculum, teacher trainees, other TAs,
persons in important position, publishers, educationists, media, business communities, British Council, other Foundations and
NGOs, offering consultancy services, materials, short courses suited to specific needs. The relationship between the TAs and
these communities was viewed in terms of mutual support and respect, energizing and enriching each other - in other words,
a relationship between partners and collaborators. For services offered, the TAs thought that they should be 'remembered' and
their work acknowledged in some form.
In the third session led by Charlie Walker and Laxman Gnawali, the discussion moved from thinking in the abstract way to
thinking about what the TAs could do in concrete terms. Ways of raising funds and getting sponsorships were debated and
discussed. In this regard we were told how SPELT, Pakistan and NELTA, Nepal were able to tackle the issue of sponsorship.
What clearly emerged from the presentations was that offering tangible benefits to the sponsors was an effective way of enlisting
their support for the TAs. As a follow up, the TAs were asked to form country groups and think of a forthcoming project,
its budget, and prospective sponsors, which was a way of concretizing the discussion in the form of an action plan.
The post- lunch sessions focused on the organizational structure of TAs and different groups were again formed to discuss the
structure, membership, finance, activities and meetings. This was a good exercise as it forced us to think more clearly about the
roles and responsibilities of the members of the committees and the importance of having a constitution for effective and
transparent functioning of the TAs.
In the last session Chandrika Bhatt and Emma Levy facilitated a discussion on establishing PR. The groups were again asked
to focus on any two issues related to the problem of establishing good PR and come up with suggestions/ solutions. The groups
had a near unanimity of opinion in choosing two issues pertinent to the issue of PR, viz. (i) the visibility/reputation/standing of
the TR, and (ii) the person responsible for establishing PR. The suggestions stressed the need to (i) increase membership at the
grassroots level, widen the base and the appeal of the association, gain credibility and circulate information about the work done
by the TA, and (ii) select the right person for establishing PR, in other words someone who is skilled in interpersonal skills, and
who is persuasive and persistent.
The day ended with a brief display of the Food Theme at the Krakow Hornby seminar by Jeremy Jacobson and a brief
presentation on 'Competencies for the Professional Development of Teachers' by Noreen Mirza.
All in all, the activities of the day kept the participants enthusiastically engaged in discussions on various aspects of invigorating
and strengthening their TAs and set the stage for creating networks of collaboration among the regional TAs.
Day 3 Laxman Gnawali ,NELTA Nepal
Session One
The session started at 9 o'clock with a warmer by Laxman Gnawali from NELTA
presenting a mock research report on animal communication. It was followed by the reporting on Day Two by Madhu Gurtu
from FORTELL.
In order to map the regional TA's, Jeremy got participants to locate their TA's on a rough sketch on the whiteboard.
The map showed TA's from Srilanka, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, UK, Nigeria and Indonesia.
(See Appendix 1) Then the participants were asked to show links if these TA's had already established some kind of links.
From the discussion it was found out that ELTAI had link with IATEFL regarding WMS; SPELT had exchanged publications
with ELTAI and FORTELL; SPELT and NELTA were already working in common projects; and ELTAI and FORTELL
had worked together on several occasions. This discovery not only firmly established the connections between different TA's,
but also brought the realization among the participants that they could actually work together with each party benefiting.
To explore more on regional co-operation, a quick brainstorming was done and the groups came up with the following possibilities.
a. There can be regional research projects and other integrated language projects.
b. There can be a regional magazine that publishes themed issues with the "Best of .." from associations.
For this the editorialship would be moving from one association to another.
c. To facilitate the participation from different countries the registration fee for the conference would be
reduced for the TA members from the respective countries.
d. A regional website can be launched. This website would be useful for sharing information and also it could
work as a portal linking all TA website's of the region. The usefulness of the site can be found out by
keeping a track record of the hits.
e. A proposal was put forward whether we can have a work audit or review of the regional groups.
f. A guide with do's and don'ts will be useful for TA's.
Thinking that the experience of the associations which already have websites can be useful, the web pages of some TA's were
shown. This included the viewing of the web pages of NUESP, NELTA, SPELT, and BELTA. This gave ideas on how the
web sites could be made attractive and useful. Jeremy also showed how one can subscribe to ELTeCS.
Session Two
The discussion on the regional web site Participants reached to an agreement that a regional web site was actually required
which could help to flow the information about the TA's, events in the region and also to post advertisements. This web site
will have to have a main home page and links to
a. the web sites of the member TA's
b. articles with the same themes
c. news
d. research reports
e. forthcoming events,
f. review of key note speeches delivered in the conferences.
In order to have a web site some money is required. However, most participants indicated that by taking help from friends
we could reduce the initial costs. As the TA's would volunteer to coordinate the maintenance and the updating of the information,
it would not require recurring budget. Jeremy suggested that a bid could be made to ELTeCS for initial set-up if the cost
was going incur. It was also suggested that the TA's volunteers need to be trained so that they will be volunteering for the long
run. There will be a bi-national co-ordinators whose term would last form six months. The Secretaries of the respective TA's will
take this responsibility ex officio. In order to keep the web site smoothly maintained, three pairs will be formed initially who would
take over one after the other.
Country action plans
With a view to enabling participants to leave the meeting with a clear idea of future co-operation, Jeremy asked the participants
from each TA's to work together and come out with three action plans to be carried out immediately after the return. Each TA
presented its own action plans. However, common action plan from most TA's were to
a. Disseminate of Colombo meeting
b. Activate chapters/branches to increase members
c. Re-launch TA's if dormant, re-launch Journal
d. Design or redesign the website, take feedback from users
e. Work towards IATEFL associate membership
f. Revisit the constitution
g. Explore new sponsors
h. Work to establish effective PR
i. Carry out in-country follow-ups
Regional action planning
A discussion was held to develop a regional action plan. Participants agreed to start regional research projects. The specific areas
of research will be decided later. But in the discussion the issue of funding was raised. It was also realized that there are
several ways of funding the projects, only the people involved in the research need to be made aware of these possibilities.
Some of the possibilities for funding are ELTeCS funds, Hornby Trust, local development funds and business houses. In order
to sustain the projects, there should be a plan to cut the costs. One of the ways is to use B Ed or M Ed students in the projects.
The communication should be done electronically and minimise travel costs. The research reports should be published through
publishers and the money from the sale can be used for further projects. To carry out these kind of projects, participants will
start needs analysis in their respective countries. Then they will start working towards write proposal.
Next Regional Meeting of the TA's
Jeremy proposed to have a follow-up meeting of the TA's in Karachi from 27 to 29 September 2004 and all participants agreed
with the venue and the dates. Before the next meeting, participants agreed to develop Teacher Quality Control Scheme.
For this, two things will have to be done a. Internal review by the members and b. peer review i.e. the review by the members
of other TA. One or two members from one TA can visit the other TA possibly during an event. The British Council can support
a few of such visits. Details for the visits including the programme and the costs will have to be sent to Jeremy for consideration.
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