**7. Underprivileged Children's Educational Programs (UCEP) Bangladesh**

The Underprivileged Children's Educational Programs (UCEP) is a leading non-government organization (NGO) in Bangladesh which provides general education and vocational training for working children. Currently over 30 thousand poor working children who have generally missed out on their primary education are studying in UCEP schools. Students are accepted into the programme no younger than age 10 for girls and 11 for boys. UCEP schools operate 3 shifts per day, each of 3 hours duration. As the children continue to work and earn while they attend school, this allows a child to choose a shift of his/her convenience, in consultation with their parents, to minimise the economic loss to the family for the children attending school. Each 3 hour shift is focused on general education but where possible examples are drawn from a technical context. For example, the English alphabet is taught through naming of craft tools – D for dividers, H for hammer. Stories in Bangla are linked to the discovery of inventions and the use of agricultural and other devices. After grade 8 UCEP continues Technical Education training on 16 professional trades (see UCEP, 2008 for more detail about these trades).

Students basically follow the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) curriculum, both at primary and lower secondary level (grades 1 to 8). However, the curriculum has been abridged in a careful manner so that it remains comparable with that of national mainstream curriculum. The curriculum consists of Bangla (mother tongue), English, mathematics, vocational, social environment and hygiene. The students learn in a highly vocational and practical way using English where necessary as technical vocabulary (EIA, 2009). At the end of their training they are guaranteed a job. In contrast to the formal government system, these poor working children attend school regularly and complete their education. The attendance rate is over 94% and the drop-out rate is very low (UCEP 2008).

### **7.1 UCEP teacher training**

98 International Perspectives of Distance Learning in Higher Education

The English in Action programme in Bangladesh is aimed at significantly improving the teaching of English in all sectors and is offering alternative forms of support including integrating information and communication technology (ICT) into different aspects of the

The English in Action (EIA) programme is a major nine-year (2008-2017) development programme initiated at the request of the Government of Bangladesh and funded by the Department for International Development (DfID) for the Government of United Kingdom. It aims to equip twenty five million Bangladeshis with the skills to communicate in English to levels that enable them to participate fully in national economic and social activities and global opportunities (EIA, 2008). The project uses supported open and distance learning (sODL), media and mobile technologies to supplement and enhance the learning and teaching of communicative English among school students, teachers and adults in

There are four major strands to the EIA programme in Bangladesh: *a). Primary Education:* engaging students and teachers through innovative classroom resources. *b). Secondary Education:* empowering teachers to change their classroom practice. These interventions are school-based, delivered through supported distance learning and enhanced by mobile technologies. *c). Adult Learning:* enabling lifelong learning via interactive and digital media and *d). Research, monitoring and evaluation (RME):* evaluating on going projects and researching impacts of interventions. As a partner in the EIA programme, the Open University UK is involved in teachers' professional development programmes in

 *Developmental research (2008-2011):* to identify the most effective, scalable and sustainable model of supported open and distance learning for English-language teachers in Bangladesh, and the most appropriate forms of mobile technology to support this. Working with 400 teachers, 80% of whom will be teaching in rural schools. *Upscaling (2011-2014)*: taking the most effective and cost-effective model of teachers' professional development forward at scale. Working with at least 12,500 teachers, from six national administrative divisions in Bangladesh. 80% teachers will be teaching in

 *Embedding (2014-2017)*: making the teachers professional development programmes available across bangladesh, through locally supported open and distance learning. The final phase of the project will require public-private partnership to provide a 'teachers' toolkit' of mobile technology, classroom resources and teachers professional

Before piloting the EIA intervention in main stream Bangladeshi school system, the prepilot study of the project was carried out at the Underprivileged Children's Educational Programs (UCEP) schools as a test-bed in the capital city Dhaka. The pre-pilot phase was

**6. English in Action (EIA) in Bangladesh** 

Bangladesh (Shohel & Banks, 2010; Shohel & Power, 2010).

There are three operational phases in the EIA project:

school-based support systems.

Bangladesh.

rural areas.

development materials.

carried out for one year (July 2009 to June 2010).

After recruitment UCEP arranges training for the teachers. Most of the training is led by resource personnel from outside as well as some of the trainers from the organisation (who are from the field, who are normally divisional coordinators and School Administrators). Table-1 shows the in-service training provided by UCEP and their duration.


Table 1. In-service trainings for the UCEP teachers

Open and Distance Learning for Teachers' Professional Development:

bed' for the main stream piloting phase (Shohel & Power, 2010).

Fig. 1. School-Based Supported ODL Model for TPD (Shohel & Banks, 2010)

The English in Action (EIA) Model for the Global South 101

location being primarily outside the school through training by experts to being in school where learning is embedded in the classroom, and from ad hoc development of skills to the production of content-specific skills and knowledge (Hutchens 1998). Successful professional

The EIA school-based support model for teachers' professional development (TPD) is a spectrum of carefully prepared information and communication technology (ICT) interventions for Bangladeshi teachers to empower them to change their classroom practice in schools. The pre-pilot phase was designed to encourage and support communicative language teaching (CLT). Media players were provided to the English language teachers, preloaded with video and audio language learning resources, along with battery-powered speakers for use in the classroom. The programme structure involved 12 modules, each centred on a particular activity designed to be taught in a secondary classroom. Each module demonstrated the activity, explored the principles underlying the activity, and encouraged teachers to use, adapt and extend this and similar activities. During the prepilot phase, (July 2009 - June 2010), the Secondary Teaching and Learning Programme (STLP) intervention was implemented in UCEP schools. This STLP was based on a range of 'blended' support systems (see Figure-1) for teachers such as an orientation workshop, a teacher guide, a multi-media player (iPod), cluster meetings of teachers on the programme, a pair of EiA teachers from each school, school visits from EiA staff giving feedback, and technical assistance. It was an experiential learning process for the implementing workforce as well as the teachers. However, pre-piloting in the UCEP schools were treated as a 'test-

development must be sustainable and overtime directly related to everyday teaching.

The training programmes are arranged on the basis of availability of the teacher at a convenient time for the head office. Teachers attend the *basic training* after joining the organisation but not necessarily immediately after recruitment. After each training teachers go back to their respective schools to carry on with their job. There is no given time schedule for the next training, however teachers then attend the *effective social work training*, which is mainly concerned with relationships with children and interaction with their families to strengthen social activities. This training includes issues, such as what would be the strategy to work with the guardians, how the teacher will behave with the students, how to liaise with the community, and how to run the follow-up programme for the students. At some point teachers need to attend *teaching and learning methodology training*, which is mainly focused on pedagogy. *Subject based training on Mathematics, English and Bangla* follows, where a SA or an experienced teacher could be the trainer. Sometimes they arrange subject based training in science too depending on need. Sometimes UCEP arranges training on *teaching aids*- supplementary teaching and learning materials focusing on teaching material development and techniques for their use. Sometimes teachers are called for other training such as *children's right training; gender and development training.*

Sometimes teachers attend training outside their organisational setting. For instance, they were previously sent to the English language training programmes run by the British Council, as well as training abroad in India. In the beginning these kinds of trainings were for the School Administrators (SAs), but now teachers are also sent abroad for training, such as in India. Apart from these, the organisation also gives scope to the teachers to pursue their further education such as BEd, MEd or BBA, MBA programmes run by different universities in the evening shift or distance learning mode. According to the respondents of the pre-pilot study, many teachers were enrolled for further education programmes. The organisation does not provide any financial support for teaching qualifications but does not object to teachers achieving one. There is no obligation for the teacher to achieve teaching qualifications as UCEP provides trainings internally. In mainstream government schools there is an obligation for the teacher to achieve their teaching qualification in a certain time. There is no refresher training for UCEP teachers in terms of continuous professional development (CPD).
