BLISS Teacher Development Films launched in Bihar

Patna, July 9, 2015: Sri P K Shahi, Minister of Education, Department of Education, Government of Bihar on Tuesday launched the BLISS Teacher Development Films, a self-access learning resource for secondary school English language teachers in Bihar.  

British Council, in association with UK Department of International Development (DfID) and the Bihar Department of Education, has been successfully running the Bihar Language Initiative for Secondary Schools (BLISS) since 2012.

This project aims to address the needs of teacher educators, teachers, learners and the wider community in Bihar by providing access to high quality teaching and learning materials as well as increased awareness of the value of English for employability.

Sujata Sen, Director British Council East India, R K Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Department of Education, Government of Bihar and Michael Connolly, Assistant Director, English Partnerships, British Council were also present.

BLISS Teacher Development Films is a self-access course that supports teachers who have not received face-to-face training in their everyday teaching practice at the secondary level. Supplemented by a workbook, these films aim to extend the learning and professional development beyond the training room.

The Teacher Development Films show five English teachers at work in different locations in Bihar. Each provides an example of different activities which can be used to develop students’ skills in reading and we hope the films offer an opportunity for others to see the types of activity that can be used in large class, low resource classrooms, how these activities work and students’ reaction to them.

Sujata Sen, Director East India, British Council, said, “It is our endeavour to associate with DfID and the Government of Bihar in devising a high quality and sustainable model for teacher training which will help improve the quality of teaching and ultimately raise the level of English proficiency among teachers and learners in the state. The launch of BLISS Teacher Development Films in Bihar is an effort to support teachers with their continuous professional development.”

The BLISS vision is to create a coherent, high-quality and sustainable model for English teacher development at secondary level in Bihar which will improve the quality of instruction and ultimately raise the level of English proficiency among both teachers and learners in the state. The effort is to ensure that English language teachers and teacher educators will have the necessary language and practical teaching skills to achieve the NCF (2005) and BCF (2008) goals, working within a supportive and systemised professional development framework.