British Ambassador Weekly Column in Echorouk Newspaper:

07 February 2013 

ENGLISH LANGUAGE: 2013 WILL SEE A MAJOR STEP FORWARD IN ALGERIA:

Since I arrived in Algeria, I have been struck by the extent to which there is a huge demand from Algerians from all walks of life to learn English and the fond memories that many people have in Algiers for the former British Council Teaching Centre and Library. After 2 years in Algeria, I have travelled to over 30 of Algeria’s Wilayas. It is striking how much people want to hear a native speaker talk to them in English.

That is why I was particularly delighted that the Prime Minister was able to announce during his visit last week that the British Council intends to re-open a teaching centre, initially in Algiers. Getting the teaching centre up and running will be a focus of our activity at the Embassy and the British Council over the coming months. We will be looking to work in partnership with the Algerian authorities to get this up and running as soon as possible.

However, both the Embassy and our partners at the British Council have been active in recent years to promote all aspects of the English language in Algeria.
The Embassy is working with the Investment Ministry on a project which will support English Language Training for public companies. In recent months, the Embassy has supported a number of visits by UK language schools, schools and universities who have recognised the huge demand for more English language in Algeria and who are now in discussion with Algerian partners to help address this need.

The British Council has also worked with private companies on an English language Start-Up programme to help them with materials and advice. The Council is also working with Chambers of Commerce in Algeria. 
The head of the University of Glasgow Caledonian, Professor Pamela Gillies, visited in December 2012. She met l’Ecole Supérieur du Commerce and the University of Algiers, as well as the Minister for Higher Education. This is just one example of the work that we are doing to promote links and exchanges at the university level.

Since 2008, the British Council’s work has focused on working with English teachers in middle schools and with school inspectors who oversee these teachers. Thus far, they have worked with more than 1600 teachers. All 87 inspectors of middle school English have  taken part in at least one training course in Algeria and by August 2013 all will have taken part in a two week development programme in the UK. And we hope that this is just the beginning. The British Council is now looking to work with the Ministries of National Education and Higher Education on advancing the teaching of English in Algeria.
The British Council have restarted their popular teacher training workshops  on Saturdays in Algiers. There are two sessions per week covering all aspects of teaching English as a foreign language. The sessions are free and open to any English teacher or trainee English teacher. If you are interested, please go to the BC website or Facebook page for further details.

www.britishcouncil.org/algeria
www.facebook.com/britishcouncilalgeria

The British Council also have a weekly competition in Echourouk newspaper, which attracts around 1500 participants each week in order to win a Galaxy tablet.

I very much welcome that so many young Algerians are seeking to learn English, the world’s truly global language, and a focus of my work, in partnership with the British Council, will remain to bring as many English Language opportunities , including in new and innovative ways, to as many Algerians as possible.
President Bouteflika and David Cameron both attach the greatest importance to promoting the English language in Algeria.  This will be at the top of our agenda in 2013, which promises to be an excellent year for Algeria/UK relations.

My very best wishes to you all.