The British Council has supported English language teaching in Africa for over 80 years, evolving its approach over time in response to changing needs and contexts. It began in the early 1930s by sending English lecturers and books overseas, and established early partnerships in Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana. Over the decades, the British Council's work has included teacher training, materials development, establishing teaching centers, and large-scale projects funded through partnerships with other organizations. More recently, it has focused on developing global online English learning products and teacher training resources that can be deployed across multiple countries in Africa and beyond.

1. British Council Support for English
in Africa – Past, Present and Future
Paul Woods, English Manager Sub-Saharan
Africa, British Council

2. The Early Years
• British Council, first known as ‘The British Committee for Relations with
Other Countries’ was established in 1934.
• The Committee brought together a coalition of interests, from government
departments, industry, the arts and science, to actively promote an
understanding of Britain across the world.
• Before this, there had been minimal commitment to the cultural promotion of
Britain.
• After the Wall Street crash of 1926 came economic depression and
increasing competition between European powers. Arguments for the
promotion of cultural relations between Britain and other countries began to
gain support.

3. The Allied Centre, Liverpool, which was opened in April 1941
for refugees, exiles and overseas service personnel

4. • In 1934 Germany and Italy were getting increasingly militaristic and
aggressive. By contrast, the British thought that a more desirable way of
spreading and strengthening influence would be through the development of
cultural relations .
• The British Council Charter defined its purpose as ‘promoting abroad a
wider appreciation of British culture and civilisation [by] encouraging
cultural, educational and other interchanges between the United Kingdom
and elsewhere’
• At first, British Council arranged for lecturers and books to be sent
overseas, as well as arranging visits to the UK.

5. Early partnerships and world war
• Funds were very limited in the early years; British Council managed with a
budget of a few thousand pounds, whereas French, German, and Italian
counterparts had budgets stretching into the millions. Initial progress was
consequently slow.
• Offices were soon established in Egypt and several European countries,
relying often on partnerships with local organisations or associations. The
outbreak of war put an end to the British Council’s work in large areas of
Europe. But the war also provided impetus for cultural relations to become a
tool to strengthen relationships with other countries.

6. UNESCO
• During the war, new offices were
opened in Ghana and Nigeria.
• In 1942, the British Council invited
representatives of Allied nations to
a meeting to discuss co-operating
on education matters. This
resulted in the Conference of
Allied Ministers of Education
(CAME).
• Then in 1945, the movement
started by the creation of CAME
led to 37 countries founding
UNESCO).
Arriving in Mexico for the Conference of Allied Ministers of
Education, which established UNESCO: Sir Ronald Adam,
Chairman of the British Council (second from left)

7. The Suez Crisis
• After World War II ended, many barriers to cultural relations work came
down and partnership opportunities increased. British Council expanded to
include new offices in Kenya and Sudan.
• Following the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Council’s work in Egypt was
suspended and London-appointed staff had to evacuate Syria and, for a
brief period, Jordan, (though the local staff in Jordan carried on the work).
• Although British Council work did not resume in Egypt until 1959, assistance
was given to Egyptians wanting to study in the UK. Many functions that the
British Council had fulfilled continued under the direction of the Egyptian
authorities. This included English language classes and a performance of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.

8. English language teaching
becomes core
• Around 1960 language teaching, in association with the BBC, became a
core element of British Council’s work. The two organisations also began to
explore the potential of using television for language teaching. A series of 39
TV programmes for teaching English was produced and shown in non-
Anglophone African countries including Algeria, Congo, Gabon, Cote
D’Ivoire and Morocco.
• A new Department for Technical Cooperation was set up in 1961,
responsible for British aid to developing countries. This led to important
changes for the British Council.
• Throughout the rest of the 1960s and up until the 1990s, British Council
became responsible for education programmes and student training
schemes in developing countries including Africa.
• During this period many students from Africa studied for MAs in Applied
Linguistics, funded by the UK government.

9. The importance of reciprocity
• In southern Africa, the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Rhodesia
in 1965 caused the British Council representative to be withdrawn. As the
crisis deepened a number of southern African countries broke off diplomatic
ties with the UK, although most allowed the British Council to continue
working.
• This was partly because of the emphasis placed on reciprocity and
partnership, according to which newly independent nations increasingly
requested the provision of English language teaching.

10. 1970’s – partnerships
• British Council supported the work of Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO)
during its early years.
• By the mid-1960s this support had increased and the British Council was
invited to act as the overseas arm of VSO engaging with more than 1,000
volunteers, many of them teachers of English.
• Since then, British Council has maintained strong links with VSO; Sir David
Green, the Director-General between 1999–2007, was previously Director
of VSO. Currently, collaboration with VSO continues in the Global Xchange
partnership, supporting the development of “active global citizens”.
• In the early 70s the British Council provided support for the ACE (Aid to
Commonwealth English) scheme, under which British ELT experts were
sent to work in universities and teacher training colleges in Commonwealth
countries, including Kenya and Uganda.

11. British books for children displayed in the
British Council office in Rabat, Morocco, 1979

12. E.C. Pugh Officer, serving as Radio Adviser to the Ministry of Education, visiting a local transmitter
station in the southern Ethiopia in 1976. The Council was helping Ministry of Education develop a
country-wide broadcasting system to boost formal and non-formal education.

13. The KELT Scheme
• From 1977, British Council developed a
partnership with the UK government
through the ODA (now DFID). This
partnership supported programmes that
included the Key English Language
Teaching Programme.
• By the mid-80s there were KELT
projects in many countries, including
Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea,
Malawi, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan,
Tanzania, and Zambia, with about 350
“experts” funded by DFID worldwide.
• These projects covered a wide range of
activities - curriculum and syllabus
design, materials production,
communication skills, teacher training
for primary and secondary schools and
many other areas,

14. British Council Teaching Centres
• During the mid-1970s the idea that newly
rich countries should pay for their own
technical aid and language teaching gained
support. Teaching Centres were set up,
which had to make a “surplus”, or at the
very least cover their costs.
• There was a feeling that this approach
would not work in Africa, so new centres
were at first confined to Egypt and some
other countries in North Africa.
• Today there are teaching centres in
Cameroon, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Libya,
Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal
and Tanzania.
Kevin Keegan at the DTE (Direct Teaching of English) Open
Day, Hamburg, 1978

15. Communicative language teaching
• The British Council also promoted new methods of teaching. With the BBC,
the Council produced a series of teacher training films, called “Teaching
Observed” which was widely used in teacher training programmes across
Africa.
• The idea that language should be taught communicatively began to gain
widespread acceptance. This gained impetus after Henry Widdowson
published “The Teaching Language as Communication” in 1978,
emphasising the importance of language use, rather than usage.
• A British Council officer, John Munby, published “Communicative Syllabus
Design” in 1978. He retired from the British Council in 1997; the book was
used as the basis for designing communicative syllabuses for English in
many Africa countries and is still in print.

16. Relationships in an era of fragmentation
• During the 70s and 80s, British Council worked to break down barriers to
understanding and opportunity, notably in apartheid South Africa.
• British Council continued with programmes of assistance to non-violent,
anti-apartheid organisations and English language programmes for the non-white
community. This included the Molteno Project, to improve language
education in black primary schools. Molteno promoted the development of
an alternative curriculum, and introduced new ways of teaching young
children to read.
• The Council also supported the UN Institute for Namibia, based in Lusaka,
which looked forward to the day when Namibia would gain its independence
from South Africa.

17. The end of aid for UK-funded ELT
• In the early 90’s, a new Minister, Clare Short, took over the Department for
International Development in the UK.
• She did not think English Language contributed to development, and
proceeded to axe EL projects funded by DFID.
• British Council, along with UK academics and EL professionals, organised
the LAP 2000 Conference in Lancaster in 1995 to emphasise the economic
and developmental arguments for ELT as an agent of change and
development
• But virtually no DFID-funded ELT projects continued after 2001. One of the
last to be completed was the Secondary and Technical English project in
Mozambique.
• Wherever possible, the Council continued to bid to design and implement
major donor- or government-funded projects in ELT. One of these was the
5-year ELIP (English Language Improvement Project) in Ethiopia, which
was completed last year.

18. Peacekeeping English
• From the mid 90’s the Peacekeeping English project was established . This
focussed initially on countries in Central and Eastern Europe which aspired
to join NATO.
• From 2003 onwards, the focus shifted to conflict and post conflict situations,
including Africa New projects were set up supporting ‘interoperability’, to
enable multinational forces from NATO, the African Union and UN peace
support operations to communicate effectively with each other.
• In this way the provision of language training was directly contributing to the
development of a safer and more peaceful world. Projects in Mozambique
and Angola have just been completed, and new projects have begun
recently in Ethiopia, DRC and Libya.
• Two weeks ago I visited Sudan to design a project to teach English to Joint
Integrated Units, composed of SAF and SPLA soldiers who were previous
fighting on opposite sides.

19. Global English Products
• In 2008 British Council decided to move away from low impact local
projects to larger scale regional and global products
• For English, 12 new products were developed, 6 for learners and 6
for teachers

20. Six Learner Products
• LearnEnglish Newspapers & Magazines
• LearnEnglish Family
• LearnEnglish Audio
• Premier Skills
• LearnEnglish Second Life for Teens
• LearnEnglish Mobile

21. LearnEnglish Newspapers & Magazines

22. Six teacher products
• Global Path
• Global Home for Teachers
• English for English Teachers course
• ICT Skills for EL Teachers course
• Teachers Knowledge Test course
• Teacher Training Videos and course

23. Global home for teachers

24. Teacher Training Videos

26. Global English Product Portfolio
English Nexus • Network building & events
• Expertise, research and KM
• Policy maker outreach
Engaging with
Teachers
• Teacher training
• Online courses to reach wider Teacher audiences
• Global CPD framework
• Communities of Practice
English Connect • Online courses to reach wider student audiences
• Using radio in SSA
• The Teaching business
• The Exams business

27. English Nexus

28. Engaging Teachers

29. English Connect

30. Any questions?