Creating a Pan-African Network of Teacher Associations Abayneh Haile British Council, Ethiopia

Objective: to improve the quality of the teaching and learning of English by building the capacity of Teacher Associations in Sub- Saharan Africa. Jointly funded by the Hornby Trust and British Council. Two Hornby Schools in 2015 and The Teacher Networks Programme

Teachers’ Associations 1 ELPA, English Language Professionals Association, Ethiopia 2. UNELTA Uganda National English Language Teachers Association 3. ATER Association of Teachers of English in Rwanda 4. ATES Association of Teachers of English in Senegal 5. Ci-ATEFL Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, Cote D’Ivoire 6. ASTEL -Association of Sudanese Teachers of English Language 7. ECEEA Eastern Cape English Educators Association, South Africa

Participants

Pre Hornby School Pre course tasks were designed A lead consultant was hired to lead the workshop Active TAs were selected Two leaders were invited from each TA

Hornby School Sessions One week workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia August Some of the main sessions during the Hornby School: Planning a long term CPD How to conduct needs analysis How to run workshops Communications Developing partnerships ( IATEFL and TESOL) Monitoring and evaluation Sustainability Mentoring – approaches and methods Planning

Sessions

Feedback The feedback from the workshop was very positive. They suggested that the following topics should be included in the next Hornby School: The use of IT to share information Invite more TAs Writing newsletters How to engage members Communication strategies for members Fundraising and writing grants

Feedback continued … Volunteering Time management Collaboration between teacher associations Proposal writing for conferences Presenting at international conferences Activities for English clubs Action research Leadership skills

Post Hornby School - Follow up Collaboration among TA leaders using social media – Face book and Linked-In Preparation of revised country plans Reports Contribution towards a publication

Collaboration between Teacher Associations Case Study ATER (Rwanda) and UNELTA (Uganda)

Participants UNELTA

UNELTA Background Registered in 2012 under the registration no_832 Mission: T o achieve a sustainable and ideal platform for English language teaching and learning in Uganda Coverage: Northern, Eastern, Western and central Uganda Membership include all levels of ELTs Members: Over 800 with 64 active ones

Participants ATER

ATER Background Established in 2008 Legal status in November 2011 About 50 active members annually since 2011 Membership composed of English teachers at all levels Major activities include conferences and CPD workshops and events Major support – British Council, U.S. Embassy in Kigali Regional English Language Office (RELO)

ATER Support Technical support to set up UNELTA. Here are benefits for UNELTA: Initial meeting/training in Kampala funded by BC Regular consultations Attend workshops and conferences Engage in INSETT for English teachers Connection with British Council Access to a regional network of TAs Model leadership Share successful practices, information & resources

Future plan of the collaboration Strengthen INSETT for English teachers Collaborate on annual conferences Collaborate on establishing TA leadership transition system Collaborate on proposal writing for CPD grants Budget permitting, visits to share best practices

Lessons learnt The realities of each TA is different TAs play a very important role in reaching English teachers across the continent so such projects should continue TAs can support each other in a meaningful way just like Uganda – Rwanda. The social network medias ( Linked-In and Facebook) were not used effectively. Each TA seem to have a particular strength Not all TAs were active in doing the follow up tasks Involving Ministry of Education

Next step The second Hornby School in August 2016 The topics that the participants suggested will be covered Only those who performed their post workshop tasks will be invited

Questions

Participants Thank you