Saudi Arabia’s strategic education services company Tatweer has joined hands with top learning company Pearson to develop a new project aimed at developing the standard of English language providers in the kingdom.
 
The English Partnership Management Project is a flagship programme of the Tatweer Company for Educational Services (T4EDU) in implementing King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz’s Project for Development of Public Education, and forms part of Saudi’s broader education reform agenda to improve the quality of teaching and learning across the Kingdom.

The project aims to improve the English language proficiency of teachers in order to enhance the quality of English language teaching throughout the Kingdom.

Under the contract, Pearson has been tasked with ensuring that the quality of English language instruction delivered to teachers meets stringent, international standards.

Throughout this project, Pearson will monitor the performance of third party English language training providers who work with the Kingdom’s English language teachers, said the company in its statement.  

The Tatweer programme will feature a number of initiatives affecting Saudi Arabia’s English language training providers, including:

•Creating a new qualification framework.
•Evaluating and certifying English language providers.
•Monitoring providers through a Quality Assurance and Performance Framework that includes performance indicators, benchmarks and data collection methods.
•Conducting quality assurance audits of English language training providers and providing regular reports to T4EDU.
•Conducting language testing to monitor teacher proficiency before, during and after the period of consultancy.
•Building capacity within T4EDU to continue a programme of certification, evaluation and quality assurance of English language training providers.

Mohammed Asiri, Pearson’s country manager in Saudi Arabia, said: "Pearson will draw on its access to leading international education experts to ensure the English Partnership Management Project meets international standards and best practice in educational quality assurance, all the while tailoring the delivery of the rollout to the needs of the Saudi market."

Pearson has recently announced a public, global commitment to ensure the efficacy of all its products and services to measurably improve the learning outcomes of those that use them.

Asiri said Pearson’s ‘efficacy promise’ will apply to all of the company's work in the Arab world, particularly the T4EDU project. The English Partnership Management Programme begins early in 2014, he added.-TradeArabia News Service