Nepal English Language Teachers' Association (NELTA) was founded in 1992. The British Council Nepal played an instrumental role in the establishment of this Association. The main objective behind its establishment was to set up a common platform for all the teachers of English in Nepal so as to support their professional development. Since its establishment, it has been recognized as a non – governmental, non-political, non-profit making professional association with the aim of enhancing ELT in Nepal. The need to improve the teaching and learning of the English language, thereby keeping abreast of new development in ELT, lay the foundation of NELTA. The following points justify the emergence of NELTA.
Majority of English teachers in Nepal were untrained and no EFL qualifications were required to become an English teacher at primary level. Thus, some kind of initiation to familiarize then with the ELT pedagogy was a must.
- As there was no professional organization of ELT until then, teachers could hardly participate in professional development activities.
- The ever increasing demand for English grew more and more due to the expansion of English medium schools together with the proliferation of business and tourism sector especially after the restoration of democracy in the country.
The Ministry of Education was on the verge of revising the school level English language syllabi. The departure from structural teaching to communicative teaching demanded massive teacher training and orientation, which the government could not do alone.
