We will be setting up a teacher training institute that will consist of two major parts.

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1) An outreach programme

The outreach program will train:

1. school leaders in modern methods of school leadership, planning and financial management, safer recruitment and child protection,

2. main teaching staff in modern methods of teaching and learning, assessment methods, child protection,

3. ancillary staff in child protection.

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2) An initial teacher training programme

This will take new graduates and provide them with the skills and knowledge to effectively teach in a classroom environment

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We aim to develop partnerships with universities so that all major training provided would be accredited by universities.

In order to setup the outreach programme we plan to bring around 50 -100 Iraqis who have graduated from universities in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand back to Iraq. These would be people who are native English speakers but also with a good level of written and spoken Arabic. We would train them to become professional education instructors to deliver our programme and school policies. For schools that are close to Baghdad, staff would visit the main institute for training. For other schools around Iraq, it would be expected that trainers would travel around the country to deliver the training locally.

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These instructors would be provided with exemplary practice in lesson planning, lesson delivery, school policies and advanced curriculum development. They would then be taught explicitly how to recreate these in their own classrooms, applying it to their own lesson plans using scripting, pair work, lesson planning and practice. In this way, we would be able to spread best teaching practice, as seen in British schools, across Iraq, and make meaningful and sustainable contributions towards improving Iraqi education standards.

 

As part of the project to improve the quality of teaching in Iraq, we would set up a “Teach First”/ “School Direct” programme for local university graduates who do not have any previous teaching experience. Based on British systems, this programme would take appropriate graduates (after a careful selection process) and place them in selected schools. For the first three months they would spend three days teaching in the classroom and then have a further two days of learning. For the rest of the year, they would spend five days in the classroom, during which time our staff would make regular visits in schools, to conduct class observations and provide specific feedback and advice, tailored to each teacher’s needs.

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Additional services

In addition to the main teacher training programme above we will work with the Ministry of Education on the following:

• Developing and implementing a Mentoring and Coaching programme for both new and experienced teachers

• Providing training on effective management and leadership to school headteachers and other senior leaders

• Providing subject specialist training to teachers

• Providing training to the government School Inspectors on effective classroom observation

• Providing training on new effective methodologies of teaching, building positive rapport with the students, and assessment procedures

• Providing training to the Examination team from the Ministry of Education on best practice in setting exams and also in regards to distributing exams to schools and ensuring the safe handling of papers to reduce cheating and fraud.