The Ministry of Education has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the British Council to work together for the effective implementation of speaking and listening assessments in secondary schools and Madrasahs. Chowdhury Mufad Ahmed, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Education, and Barbara Wickham, Director British Council Bangladesh, signed the MoU today in the Ministry of Education in the presence of Nurul Islam Nahid, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Education has decided recently to include speaking and listening skills to ensure practice of those skills in classroom teaching along with reading and writing skills in all secondary schools and Madrasahs. 20% weightage will be given to the assessment of speaking and listening skills, which will be added to the final exam to determine the pupils’ final grade. The assessment of these skills will be done through continuous assessment. This decision is applicable for all internal exams, but not for exam like Junior School Certificate (JSC), Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Dhakil at this moment.
The Ministry of Education and the British Council will conduct a joint baseline study under this MoU to understand the current practice of the teaching of speaking and listening skills and how these skills are integrated, in teaching with the other two skills: reading and writing. It will provide a basis to decide the types of improvements needed in pedagogical practice and what kind of professional development support teachers need to ensure that these assessments are administered and marked properly, sufficiently and consistently across all schools.
Nurul Islam Nahid, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Education said “We are delighted that the British Council has come forward to support us with the effective implementation of speaking and listening assessments with its well established expertise in the area of assessment” .
Barbara Wickham, Director British Council Bangladesh emphasised that the British Council is always keen to strengthen its strategic engagement and continue collaboration with the ministry in implementing education reform initiatives.