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My association with the idea of setting up an English Language teacher training institution started 29 years ago when I first joined teacher training. However, at that time I was not aware of the significance of that moment in time. I was asked to help mount an exhibition for a British Council visit to my college. Years later in 1996, when I was the Senior Assistant Director in the Teacher Education Division I was directed to write a proposal for the setting up of the English Language Institute (ELI). It was from the archives that I realized that one of the first proposed locations for ELI was my former college. The new proposal was approved in principle by our Education Minister then, Dato Seri Najib bin Abdul Razak in 1997. Three consultancies from the British Council helped map the role and function of the proposed institution.
In June 2002, I was nominated from among ten senior English language lecturers, handpicked by the Director-General then, the late Haji Abdul Rafie bin Mahat, from three training colleges to lead a new teacher training institution, the Malaysian English Teaching Centre (MELTC). This name was subsequently changed to the English Language Teaching Centre (ELTC) in August 2002. The setting up of the institution almost immediately coincided with the announcement of the policy to teach Science and Mathematics in English. The MELTC Taskforce conceptualized the training model (which was subsequently changed by implementers) and was directed to design and write the training modules as well as to train all the trainers for the implementation of the policy. Our training modules impacted more than 30,000 English, Science and Mathematics teachers.
I began my career as a teacher in a semi-rural school where I nurtured my love for teaching and my empathy for the poor and weak students. I had a lot of fun getting students interested in English and Geography. We learnt geography on weekend hikes to Maxwell Hill, through bicycle rides in jungles and picnics by muddy rivers, by setting up a weather station at school with students recording daily readings; and English, through weekly newsletters, debates and drama. The glorious moment was when my debating team from a small suburban school beat Malay College at the zone level debates! My interest in investigating my students’ interests eventually led me to the Educational Research, Planning and Policy Division of the Ministry of Education (MOE). My first assignment there was to write the proposal to set up a revolving fund to support poor students in higher education.
Missing the busy-ness of school, I joined teacher training and stayed for twelve years as a lecturer and eventually as head of the English Department. One of the highlights then was when our college team was pitched against the crowd favourite, the Language Institute, and emerged champions at the national level debates. In 1988, a SEAMEO scholarship took me to RELC in Singapore where I proposed an integrated curriculum for language training using a process approach. On my return, I was able to contribute to the implementation of the Process-based Coursework Program of the Teacher Education Division (TED). In 1992 I was awarded the Hornby Award and went to the UK to do my masters. I put my Masters thesis on trainer training to good use when I was seconded to the TED as Project Manager cum trainer for a 4-year trainer training project (Primary English Teacher Education Project – PETEP), jointly sponsored by the Overseas Development Administration and the MOE. One outcome of this project was the Malaysian Trainer Development Program (MTDP).
I have had 6 exciting years as Senior Assistant Director coordinating English language programs in the 31 teacher training colleges, playing a key role in several new initiatives such as the setting up of the new twinning programme with 5 UK universities, the conversion of certificate level pay scale to diploma level for all primary school teachers in the country, the upgrading of pre-service teacher education to diploma level resulting in the Malaysia Teaching Diploma, the conceptualization of SMART schools and SMART teacher training, the setting up of a pedagogical university (Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris – UPSI) and the conceptualization and planning for an English Language Institute (ELI).
My interest in the transfer value of in-service teacher education led me to my doctoral research into the impact of in-service teacher education on ELT training practices.
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