The British Council and the School Education and Literacy Department (SELD) of the Sindh government signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) on 27-June-2025 to initiate a new phase of collaboration aimed at transforming English language instruction in public schools across the province.
This strategic partnership, to be formalised through an Operational Alliance Agreement, would support the professional development of 30,000 newly inducted Primary School Teachers (PSTs) and Early Childhood Teachers (ECTs) under the British Council’s English as a Subject for Teachers and Educators (EaSTE) programme.
The initiative was designed to help teachers deliver English and other subjects more effectively through inclusive, multilingual, and modern 21st-century pedagogical approaches. The programme was expected to impact the learning experience of nearly 2 million children in Sindh.
As part of the collaboration, the British Council would also work with SELD to implement a scalable digital Learning Management System (LMS) and train 1,000 in-service public school teachers as mentors, ensuring continuous guidance and peer support for teaching staff.
James Hampson, Country Director of the British Council Pakistan, remarked, “Today’s agreement renews our partnership and our commitment to the people and Government of Sindh. I want us to do more, together. That’s why our ambition of supporting 30,000 teachers and 2 million children is such an important next step.”
Sardar Ali Shah, Sindh’s Minister for Education, added, “Our focus is not just on access but on quality. Through this initiative, we are equipping our teachers with the tools they need to teach English more effectively and in ways that reflect the linguistic and cultural realities of our classrooms. The next phase after recruitment is professional development and capacity building.”
The initiative underscores a shared commitment to building a sustainable teacher development framework in Sindh by combining global best practices with local insights. Delivered through a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach, the programme builds on the British Council’s decades-long legacy of supporting education and teacher development in Pakistan.
The EaSTE programme had already shown significant success in Punjab, where it improved English teaching for over 140,000 educators, and was now poised to deliver similar impact in Sindh.
Published in News Daily on 30 June 2025.
