Country: Pakistan
Client: Punjab Education and English Language Initiative (PEELI)
Test takers: Teachers
Purpose of the test: Benchmarking language proficiency of teachers
Skills package: Core + Reading + Listening + Writing + Speaking
Mode of Delivery: Computer
Administration: British Council
Punjab Education and English Language Initiative (PEELI) is a five-year project that aims to train 180,000 primary and middle school teachers who teach English, Maths, Science and Computer Science to 15 million children aged 5-14 in over 56,000 schools across Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province. Overall, PEELI will be helping 300,000 teachers across Punjab improve their English language and pedagogical skills.
PEELI’s contribution is targeted at providing training, resources and self-directed learning platforms for not only teachers and teacher educators but also district officials and head teachers. The project is working to improve the ability of primary and middle school teachers to teach English as a subject, and to strengthen the ability of middle school teachers of Maths, Science and Computer Science to teach their subjects through the medium of English.
PEELI collaborates with development partners and other stakeholders to ensure that the project is integrated with on-going reform initiatives and contributes strategically to the Government of Pakistan’s ambitions for the general improvement of education in Punjab.
Having English at the heart of the project, Aptis was selected as an assessment tool to evaluate the current skill level of teachers.
The initial test conducted for 2,008 primary and middle school teachers for both private and government schools revealed that over 50% of the teachers registered for the lowest possible scores meaning that they were lacking basic English skills. These results were then used for detailed analysis and training plans for the project.
Results/impact:
Aptis provided PEELI team with insights and helped them develop strategy to carry the project forward. Please with the results the PEELI report suggested to use Aptis in the recruitment process for the teachers and further as a recognition system.
The report states “It is suggested that schools that meet the Directorate of Staff Development’s minimum standards of English for teachers at each grade level would receive the badge of “Aptis Certified School” To encourage further development of English medium teaching beyond this basic threshold, higher award levels might be created – schools that achieve higher than average Aptis results among students, for example, might receive “Excellence in English Language Teaching” awards, while those that score higher than average in assessments of subjects taught through the medium of English might receive an “Excellence in English Medium” award ”.
Testimonial:
Aptis seemed the logical solution when it came to benchmarking of English language levels as the test format is easy to follow, relatively quick to administer and provides a very reliable indicator of current English language levels.
“Aptis was chosen by the British Council’s largest English medium educational project in Pakistan (Punjab Education and English Language Initiative, PEELI) to benchmark English language levels amongst teachers annually over project’s lifetime because it provides a reliable, easy to administer low-cost solution.
PEELI aims to improve the language ability of all 300,000 teachers of Punjab and with that in mind Aptis seemed the logical solution when it came to benchmarking of English language levels as the test format is easy to follow, relatively quick to administer and provides a very reliable indicator of current English language levels. Furthermore, another critical factor that set Aptis apart from many other exams was its ability to be administered almost anywhere which was and remains vital for the PEELI project as it works, trains and tests teachers in all 36 districts of Punjab.”
Matt Pusey – Senior Trainer, PEELI Project