Commercial Bank joins British Council to train English teachers in Kandy

Friday, 20 June 2014 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Commercial Bank’s CSR Trust in collaboration with the British Council in Kandy conducted a training program in Kandy recently to enhance the skills of 200 English language teachers in the district.

Teachers were selected from 153 schools from four educational zones for this program, conducted at Kingswood College, Kandy. The program in the form of a road show consisted of a series of training sessions conducted by eight trainers with one training coordinator and logistical support. Participants rotated around a series of four sessions. The primary objectives of the program were to make teachers more confident in using English in the English language classroom, better able to exploit their text books to develop speaking and listening skills, to increase the ratio of pupil talking time as opposed to teacher talking time in their classrooms, and to use a more child-centred and activity-based methodology in the classroom. The British Council also developed new training materials in booklet form to increase the ability of English teachers to develop the listening and speaking skills of pupils. At the end of the program participants received certificates and took part in a competition for which prizes were provided by the British Council and Commercial Bank. The program was designed to support Commercial Bank’s own CSR initiative to develop the Spoken English skills of Secondary school pupils in Sri Lanka. The Commercial Bank’s CSR Trust was established in 2004. The overall goal of the Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy is to generate measurable and sustainable social dividends for different segments of society, in particular those which require empowerment and enrichment.