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Archive
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INTERNATIONAL FORUM OF TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS
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 In the day by day changing world the role and importance of Teachers' Associations increase and they are accepted as important partners by ELT programmes in their respective countries, as well as the Ministries of Education.
As a teachers' association, AzETA also gains more recognition throughout the country. The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan acknowledges AzETA's contribution to the Education Reform Project carried out with the World Bank credit.
 AzETA also very closely co-operates with analogues organisations in the region and worldwide. To further this co-operation and seek new opportunities for implementing joint projects, AzETA held a one-day forum of teachers' associations that AzETA co-operate with or seek ways to establish co-operation. With this aim AETA approached some TAs as well as some Hornby alumni who have connections with the TAs of their countries. TAs of Turkey (INGED), Georgia (ETAG), Pakistan (SPELT) and Kyrgyzstan (FORUM) welcomed the idea and agreed to join the Forum. These are the TAs that play important role in promoting ELT network reform agendas in their countries and/or in the region. Some of these TAs belong to the same network. Some of them are the members of RENTA (Regional Network of Teachers¡¦ Associations that unites TAs of the South Caucasus, Central Asia and the Russian Federation), like AzETA, ETAG, FORUM; some of them are associate members of IATEFL (UK), like AzETA and INGED.
 The Forum was held on 7 September 2006 in Sheki, northern region of Azerbaijan. The Forum enabled the representatives of the TAs to discuss common issues of concern, exchange experiences, seek opportunities to further co-operation and widen the scope of the network. Hornby Alumni from Azerbaijan, Bangladesh and Pakistan also joined the forum with the aim of helping their TAs revive and seek opportunities to connect their TAs with the networks of well-functioning TAs to learn from their experiences and to implement joint projects.
The main sponsor of the event was the British Council managed Hornby Education Trust. The US Embassy in kyrgyzstan funded the participation of the representatives of Forum (TA of Kyrgyzstan) to join the Forum of the Teachers' Associations. Dr Lisa Harshbarger, Regional Language Officer from the US Embassy in Kyiv also joined the Forum.
The objective of the Forum was to achieve better results through uniting efforts. Networks are very crucial in achieving better results. Although there exist online networks of TAs (e.g. RENTA), it is crucial that these networks once in a while gather together to exchange experiences, seek ways for furthering co-operation, implementing joint projects and helping one another in solving problems that individual TAs might experience.
As such, the aim of the Forum was to bring together the representatives of the TAs to:
· Exchange information on how changes in education system in their respective counties are perceived by those working to combat it and what are the attitudes towards the TAs involved in these changes directly or indirectly, what they think of their own needs, the needs of their members in the context of change;
· Exchange experiences on what changes, practices etc have been successful or not in their practices, as well as the projects they have implemented;
· Discuss the ways of furthering co-operation among the TAs through implementing more joint projects;
· Seek possibilities of furthering the existing good networking among the TAs;
· Seek possibilities to establish and/or extend relations with the UK;
· Help the TAs with some difficulties live out these difficulties and involve them in the network and projects;
· Share experiences on organisational management in general and branch management, in particular.
The Forum was followed by the meeting of the Hornby Alumni where some ideas on implementing joint projects were generated.
Thanks to the Hornby Trust funding the Forum participants were able to attend AzETA 3rd Annual Conference on 8-10 September 2006. All the participants gave presentations at the Conference on different topics (more information on the Conference is available at the Conference Page). |
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