Success story - Department for International Development

Success story

Department for International Development

English in Action (EIA) was a £48m DFID-funded programme to enhance the English language skills of 30 million+ learners. Mott MacDonald Ltd, was consortium lead, The Open University (OU) was subcontracted to design and deliver the £11m school-based teacher development component.

The challenge

EIA needed to move from an small-scale pilot with government support, to delivering at national scale to 53,000 teachers through existing government systems. It had to deliver a programme which changed teachers attitudes, competencies and the methods by which they taught in addition to language skills. The project had to be developed with limited capacity of government officials, and the challenge of national scope which included many rural and difficult to reach areas with little or no ICT infrastructure or ability to travel to external trainings. Due to the extreme financial limitations and that future delivery depended on government funding that could not continue to fund expensive technology, the programme had to deliver a low cost sustainable model.

The solution

The OU led and managed integrated teams of staff from all consortium partners and collaborated with the Government of Bangladesh and Bangladeshi educators to design, develop and implementation, supporting continuous adaption and improvement and the achievement of sustainability. The programme provided comprehensive training for 53,000 at low cost. The cost reduced from £225 to £2 per teacher, increasing sustainability and ensuring replicability. It reached over 53,000 English language teachers and 7 million school children nationally from 2008-2018.