NELTA Initiates ELT Survey
With growing need and use of English language in Nepal , English has become instrumental in shaping personal and social life, democracy, business and academics alike. Similarly, democracy, a necessary tool for the present day world, can also flourish only through English as most of the information on democracy and human rights can be accessed through the English language. These changes in the status of English and its teaching and learning in the public and private sectors need to be documented with authentic empirical data.
As a response to the above need, Nepal English Language Teachers' Association (NELTA) has initiated a venture of ELT survey. A one-day ELT stakeholders' workshop was organized as a preparatory work, in Kathmandu , on the17 th November 2007. The workshop was sponsored by the US Embassy, Kathmandu . Speaking at the workshop, NELTA President, Prof. Dr. Govinda Raj Bhattarai stressed on the need to document the status of ELT. He said that the task NELTA is undertaking is huge and cooperation from all ELT stakeholders and the collaborators will be instrumental in making this endeavour a success.
Vice President, Mr Laxman Gnawali highlighted the status of use of English and its teaching and learning. He stressed on the need of a survey because an authentic documentation of the status will be useful for representing the latest changes in the use and teaching and learning of English.
On the occasion, Prof. Dr. Jai Raj Awasthi, advisor to NELTA, and one of the team members of the first ever ELT Survey of Nepal (1983-84) highlighted the key findings and recommendations of the study and stressed on the need to update the status of ELT through a new survey. Prof. Dr . Tirth Raj Khaniya, advisor to NELTA, said that as the proposed survey will ultimately become a full-fledged research, it should cover emerging issues of ELT. Mr Ram Swarup Sinha, Executive Director of NCED (MOES) said that the government and NELTA should collaborate for professional development of English language teachers. Likewise, Mr Harka Prasad Shrestha, Controller of the Office of Controller of Examination, Mr Ganga Ram Gautam, Senior Vice President of NELTA, and Mr Hemanta Raj Dahal, General Secretary, also stressed on the need of collaboration among the ELT stakeholders. Presenting the summarized product of the workshop, Prof. Dr. Abhi Subedi advised NELTA to take the lead in this historic initiative. The one-day workshop was participated by high ranking officials from the Ministry of Education and Sport s , Professors and Teacher Educators of different universities, US Embassy, representatives of PABSON, INGOs, NGOs and NELTA officials from the centre and branches. The workshop finally formed a task force comprising Prof. Dr. Jai Raj Awasthi, Prof. Dr. Tirth Raj Khaniya and Prof. Dr. Govinda Raj Bhattarai.
