English language teaching is improving.

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A meeting of new national team to support reforms in teaching English in the public education system created by the Ministry of Public Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan in partnership with the representative office of the British Council in Uzbekistan is held from 3 to 12 November 2018.

Modernization of the public education system is among the highest priority national tasks. One of the main directions of reform is high-quality teaching of English in order to train personnel that meet the requirements of the modern labor market. It is important that school graduates have the skills that are defined in national standards for learning a foreign language and the requirements for admission to higher education.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to carry our comprehensive assessment of the current situation of learning English in primary and secondary schools, including existing standards, teaching practice, requirements, as well as identify specific problems and tasks, as well as examples of best practices, and based on them, develop specific recommendations and a long-term and short-term action plan.

It is also necessary to develop strategies for the interaction of all stakeholders in the education process to ensure quality education, where the main components of the reform - curriculum, skills assessment system, teaching methods and teaching materials - are conceptually uniform and consistent, and learn best practices in teaching English and attractt the best international experts and partners.

To this end, a national team has been set up to reform the teaching of English at school, consisting of leading experts in teaching, developing curricula and materials, as well as an English language skills assessment system.

 To date, the team has conducted a primary study of the existing practice of teaching English in secondary schools throughout Uzbekistan, including attending lessons, meeting teachers, analyzing curricula and teaching materials used in lessons and for out-of-class work.

To participate in the discussion of the first results of research and study of the experience of writing textbooks for primary and secondary schools, the leading British consultant in the field of teaching English at school, Wendy Arnold, was invited to a workshop of the national group. Ms. Arnold has 25 years of experience in training English teachers and creating a new generation of textbooks. Wendy Arnold has served as a consultant on educational reform projects in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Wendy was a consultant to a group of authors of textbooks for elementary school and has knowledge about the system of public education in Uzbekistan.

Noting the importance of a systems approach in educational reform, Arnold emphasizes: “Reforms in the education system and curriculum changes must necessarily go hand in hand with reforms in the teacher training system”

In the framework of the visit, Wendy Arnold and the national project team will work on the creation of a modern advanced education program for teachers of English in secondary schools. The modules of this program will also be used in the system of training future teachers of English in 17 universities of the country.

Following the results of the entire program, the project team will develop a further action plan for reforming the system of teaching English in schools, taking into account advanced national and international practice.