71 Madrasah teachers, 2 faculty members become British Council-trained teacher educators for English

The British Council, in collaboration with the Bangladesh Madrasah Teachers’ Training Institute (BMTTI) and Technical and Madrasah Education Division (TMED), has completed an intensive six-day residential Training of Trainers (ToT) programme.

Delivered over 28 sessions by nine top English Language Teaching (ELT) experts from Bangladesh, the programme equipped 73 Teacher Educators from the Madrasah sector with skills to deliver a newly developed teacher training module, according to a media release. 

This initiative has led to an expansion in trainer capacity, increasing the number from 2 to 73.

The training was held at the Bangladesh Madrasah Teacher's Training Institute (BMTTI) in Gazipur.

This residential training is a key component of a larger partnership between the British Council and Technical and Madrasah Education Division (TMED), which began in February 2024 and is set to continue through December 2025, the release says. 

Prior to the in-person Training of Trainers, the Master Trainers participated in a comprehensive 12-week online "Learning Pathway to Assured Certificate in Teacher Education (LPACTE)," a global certification assured by City and Guilds, UK.

Following this, they participated in a six-month Community of Practice (CoP) forum, which began in July 2025, where they learned through reflection, assignments, and the sharing of contextual knowledge, according to the release. 

During the inaugural ceremony, Maarya Rahman, Deputy Director Bangladesh, British Council, formally handed over copies of the new modules to BMTTI.

She stated during her address, "BMTTI has faced a significant challenge: how can a single institute with a limited number of faculties provide high-quality, ongoing training to over 100,000 teachers across the country? The answer is to build the capacity of the existing cadre and create a scalable system.  And today, we see the answer to that challenge right here in this room: 73 dedicated Teacher Educators who are now ready to deliver this training and multiply this impact nationwide,".

Muhammad Rafiqul Islam, Secretary of TMED, expressed his strong support for the collaboration. "I am happy to see this collaboration is taking place," he stated.

"It is a great opportunity for the BMTTI Master Trainers to learn from national and international ELT experts. We look forward to the future collaboration with the British Council."

Professor Mahmudul Haque, Principal of BMTTI, highlighted the program's impact, sharing, "This collaboration has significantly increased the capacity of our teachers."

The training also included a vital session on safeguarding, conducted by Aklima Akter, Country Safeguarding Manager for the British Council.

At the closing ceremony, Shamresh Saha, Team Lead for English and School Education at the British Council, remarked, "The British Council is dedicated to working on developing the systemic capacity of the education system of Bangladesh. This project is a true example of British Council and government sector collaboration. We are happy to collaborate more and utilise the learning from teachers' professional development activities for long-term impact."

Other distinguished guests present throughout the programme included Md. Habibur Rahman, BMTTI Vice Principal Dr. Md. Nurullah, Mohammad Sohel Rana, ADC (Education) Gazipur, Dr. Farzana and Golam Kuddus, Faculty BMTTI.

Sahelee Jamila Naz, English Programme Manager, represented the British Council and contributed significantly to managing this project, the release adds.