Madrid's regional government likes to boast of its commitment to bilingual education, and funds expensive campaigns to that effect; most notably we had the recent "Yes we want" fiasco. There is another side to the story, as explained here by Blackboard the Pirate; South of Watford's first ever guest blogger.
With the school year - and quite possibly the national PSOE government - heading towards an end, and with Countess Aguirre’s private Comunidad widely cited as a model for Spain to follow, a genuine educational model is being bullied by Aguirre’s administration for the sin of being a better scheme than her own.
Thousands of Madrid’s schoolchildren receive tuition in both Spanish and English, in a scheme which – according to Aguirre’s propaganda – is “un modelo educativo considerado como el mejor programa de inmersión lingüística de Europa”. This isn’t true: it’s not even el mejor programa operating within her own Comunidad. In 1996, the British Council (BC) started up and part-funded a project whereby some schools would teach some lessons in English - not just English lessons, but other lessons too. Class teachers are assisted by asesores, native English speakers or Spaniards who have spent a long time in English-speaking countries and achieved fluency in English. Having started in just a few schools, it has thrived: a hundred or more schools across Spain are now in the project, including a number in the Comunidad de Madrid.
Keen to be associated with a popular idea, but not keen that anybody else should get any credit, Aguirre subsequently started up her own scheme – in which there are no asesores. It’s not really a bad scheme, but is manifestly inferior to the BC project. So, piqued by the existence of a better version existing on her own patch, Aguirre is trying to bully the Madrid schools into leaving the BC project and joining her own. Her methods of doing this have so far included:
(a) refusing permission to teachers in BC schools to attend training courses ;
(b) either refusing to let schools replace asesores who have left, or engaging in a lot of feet-dragging before allowing them to do so;
(c) her education minister refusing to meet parents complaining about this, on the specious grounds that she didn't have an available room big enough ;
(d) a late-in-the-day insistence that the BC schools pay for all their pupils to take exams they had not previously taken, costing them of thousands of euros which would otherwise have been available for books and other educational needs.
It seems to some BC project teachers that the intention is to make life increasingly hard for their project unless and until the schools jump ship and join Aguirre’s project instead, which some secondary schools have found themselves obliged to do. The chaos resulting from Aguirre’s meddling is documented in this report.
Is it an unfamiliar pattern? The public face is a forest of press releases with many pictures of Aguirre and many declarations of her greatness: the reality is bullying, empire-building, and a worse service pretending to be a better one. That’s the future for the kids Aguirre is using as pawns in a propaganda game, and conceivably the future for Spain as well.
11 comments:
I know lots of people on the other scheme and it works brilliantly at least in Asturias, actually gives the kids a real chance to actually learn English from a young age and gives the teachers a decent wage which is unusual in TEFL in Spain.
Pity idiots like Aguirre want to ruin a perfectly good scheme
What a shame that such a good system is being undermined. I'm in Catalunya, so I realise that Madrid probably doesn't approve, but we've been very impressed with the way that the children here have a very good chance to be tri-lingual, being taught english, spanish and catalan from a young age.
Don't mention the "C" word in Madrid Jan. I think another of Aguirre's education as propaganda ploys was to announce that she would have a school teaching in Catalan. I believe it even opened, only to close again a week later due to "lack of demand".
Ha, I'm not surprised! When we get spam calls to our landline we love to ask the caller if they parla catala... they don't... ever! It's as effective for getting them off the line as if we say we're english.
Hate to be the proverbial fly in the ointment here, but if Aguirre's scheme is worse than the BC's scheme, it must be frighteningly bad. The BC's scheme is a joke, or at least it is out here in Extremadura.
Here you have so-called 'teachers' (being called so because they are native speakers that just might have a PGCE) who for some reason get the same job that a Spaniard has to pass an oposicion to get. The only difference being that they aren't civil servants for life, admittedly a big difference but one, you would think, that would keep them from coasting.
The British Council NEVER does any quality control, any, zero. The teachers are never observed, don't have to hand in weekly plans etc (as they would in any U.K school).
So you find the laziest teachers who never plan their classes, don't follow any sort of text book and would last about a week in a U.K school.
Remember that these aren't TEFL teachers clowning around with the kids for an hour a day, but full-time primary teachers.
The idea on paper may sound good, but as usual with the B.C, it is just a moneymaker that they don't follow through on with the proper supervision needed to keep the quality up (like the BC 'approved' schools that you find that don't even follow U.K curriculums).
It actually surprises me Graeme that you of all people would be supporting the evil institution (though I do know that it was a guest post).
Check this fellow's blog out for dirt on the BC.
http://www.dblackie.blogs.com/
Perhaps it's a question of which is the lesser evil Troy? Or that the provinces do not get as good a version as the capital? In Madrid the parents of the schools concerned seem to like the scheme enough to protest when it is threatened with being replaced by the other one.
who for some reason get the same job that a Spaniard has to pass an oposicion to get.
This isn't true: in the first place an "asesore" is not the same as a teacher and in the second, the asesores are not paid the same as teachers who have passed their oposiciones - even if they have a PGCE, which there is absolutely no reason to consider a qualification of a lower standard.
The British Council NEVER does any quality control, any, zero.
The project has been independently assessed, as Troy would know if he attended to the second of the links provided in the piece.
don't have to hand in weekly plans etc
And this differs from other Spanish schools how? Does Troy think by the way that BC project schools are outside the normal education system? If he does, what would be his reason for thinking so?
The idea on paper may sound good, but as usual with the B.C, it is just a moneymaker
How much money do the BC make from the scheme, and how do they do this?
Pop quiz, by the way: how many BC project schools are there in Extremadura?
Blackboard The Pirate
Sñr Pirate, we may have got off on the wrong foot here.
I don't know how many more BC scheme schools there are here in Extremadura, but I do know there is one in Caceres called 'La Hispanidad'. And from what I know, it definitely would not pass a rigorous quality control test. The pilot may have been independently assessed, but from what I have seen there have been no ongoing checks, at least out here.
Perhaps I expect too much from the BC, but it seems their only job is to source the 'native' experts and then leave them to rot. Out here the 'native' teachers campaigned to be given a decent contract but continue to be hired on yearly contracts, making mortgages, loans etc impossible. This situation does not encourage good teachers to stick around, but in fact seems more suited to backpackers looking for some beer money while they spend their gap year in Spain.
It also may be true as you note that the 'asesores' do not get paid as much as a Spanish teacher who has passed the 'oposicion', but out here at least they are classroom teachers. This means that they waltz into a position that a Spaniard with a 3 year education degree who has suffered the 'oposicion' and is now on the 'interino' list may be waiting for. True, it could be argued that this is not the BC's fault, it is rather unfair.
I do not think that the BC schools are outside the Spanish Education system but I would expect them to introduce measures that work well in the U.K. It's well known that there is absolutely no quality control in 'normal' Spanish classrooms, once a teacher passes their 'oposicion' they do whatever they please in their classrooms and yes, a blank planning sheet at the beginning of the day is probably more the norm than the exception, but this is no reason to accept this situation. Once again maybe I'm expecting too much from the BC, but wouldn't things like observed classes, things par for the course in a U.K school, be part of the 'exchange' of ideas?
If the BC isn't making any money out of this, my question would be why are they doing it? Are they really the charitable institution they claim to be? If you believe that, search around the website posted above and you'll see that this claim is far from the truth.
I don't know how many more BC scheme schools there are here in Extremadura
There are two – La Hispanidad and one other. Which is not a large sample. But since you mention it, have you met the asesores at La Hispanidad and asked what they do?
This situation does not encourage good teachers to stick around, but in fact seems more suited to backpackers looking for some beer money while they spend their gap year in Spain.
Is that, in fact, an accurate description of most asesores, or are in fact a large proportion people who have been in Spain for years and who settled here, often with families?
This means that they waltz into a position that a Spaniard with a 3 year education degree who has suffered the 'oposicion' and is now on the 'interino' list may be waiting for.
No, they don't. Spanish teachers are able to apply for these positions too – there are in fact a number of Spanish asesores. But they must have fluent English and experience of living in an English-speaking country, and the oposiciones don't get you that, do they?
I would expect them to introduce measures that work well in the U.K.
Why would you? It's a BC project but these are not BC schools. In many schools the director/a may not even be particularly fond of the project. But while asesores have the capacity – to a point – to introduce their known ideas into their own teaching, they don't get to affect school policy very much.
If the BC isn't making any money out of this, my question would be why are they doing it?
Isn't it up to you to answer that question? You’ve claimed that it's a money-making scheme but provided nothing to back up the claim other than the claim itself.
B the P
My question remains, why does the British Council sign on to projects where they have little (quality) control?
You ask why would I expect a BC project to introduce measures that work well in the UK? My question is why wouldn't they? If they are going to put their name on something, why wouldn't they push for some sort of quality control and leverage to implant weekly planning, observations etc? Is the project then only a means of exposing the kids to 'real' English? Cassette players can do that.
This project may indeed better the English that the children are exposed to (you are right, some of the teachers who get through the 'oposiciones' system have abysmal speaking skills), but they are teaching professionals with a 3 year education degree (now 4 year). With proper ongoing training and more importantly guidance and supervision, they would become much better teachers. Of course, this is not the BC's fault, but if they focused their energies in that direction, it would in the end be more useful to more children in more schools. In the end, isn't that what we all want?
'Asesores' out here are classroom teachers, not just English teachers. There may be very good qualified teachers working in the system, but in my opinion there is a very big difference between a classroom teacher and your typical TEFL teacher who may have a CELTA but no real training with kids (myself included), even if they do have RP pronunciation.
In fact I do know a woman who was working in the project out here, an excellent teacher with years of experience, but she left the project because she didn't feel she was getting the support she needed from the BC. Year after year they remained on one year contracts. She does have a family and couldn't continue under these conditions.
This lack of support by the BC is not only found in this project. Down on the coast (and I'm sure in Madrid) there are many BC 'accredited' schools Once again I'm not sure what they accredit, because veteran UK teachers I know who have worked within them say that the curriculum has absolutely nothing do with the U.K curriculum. But worse yet, once again the BC does nothing to protect the teachers working withing their 'accredited' schools.
I personally know of a case where a teacher was seriously abused and after filing a complaint with the BC, received a curt letter saying that their accreditation system has nothing to do with the rights of teachers.
And as for the money making...I admit, I can't back that claim up with any concrete evidence...Let's just call it experience with them. Read this in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/jul/18/tefl.furthereducation
This sums them up quite well http://dblackie.blogs.com/the_language_business/2007/05/oil_politics_an.html
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