British Council Stops Running English
Courses
The council, which has been at the heart of a diplomatic spat between
Russia and Britain in recent years, was informed by the Foreign Ministry that it would
need an Education and Science Ministry license to continue offering classes.
The worldwide known international organization “The British
Council” declared the closure of its courses of English in Russia. This decision was
taken so unexpectedly that many teachers were suddenly left without work and thousands of
students had nothing else to do but to search for new courses.
What were the reasons of this decampment? Who will prepare students for
the Cambridge exams now? In this article I’ll disclose these and some other details of
this news.
The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international
organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations. It has a network of 15
information centers all over Russia. These centers offer a wide range of educational
opportunities, such as: free access to internet and multi-media resources on the
UK, advice on British education and training opportunities, and materials for
teaching and learning English. Also “The BC” organizes various art exhibitions were
people get to know the best music, theatre, dance, design, visual arts, film and
literature from the UK.
But one of the most popular services of “The BC” has always been
the course of English as a foreign language. Thousands of students, who wanted to know
English well, preferred “The BC” as an organization, famous for its high quality of
education and for its native speaking teachers. The centre offered English courses for
adults and young learners at any level of English; preparation courses for
Cambridge ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) exams including IELTS
(International English Language Testing System); certificates on completion
of all courses.
Unfortunately for all students of “The BC”, at the beginning of the
year 2007 the administration of this organization decided to leave the Russian market of
education. According to the chief of the Moscow PR department of British Council, Natalia
Minchenko, the idea of ending their educational work appeared already in April 2006, when
the government passed a law restricting NGO’s activity in Russia. This law obliged all
non-governmental organizations to get a license to allow them to continue their work. As
“The BC” has always been a cultural centre of the Embassy of the UK and offered the
courses for fees (which allowed them to meet their own expenses), the organization is
regarded as non-governmental. After the appearance of the “license problem” the
organization decided to leave the market.
Some political analysts relate this occasion to some other political
tensions, which appeared between Russia and The UK at the end of the year ’06. But for
English language learners in Russia the fact remains a fact – the courses are closed and
they have nothing else to do but to search for others that will prepare them for Cambridge
exams, like First Certificate and Cambridge Advanced English exam. The only thing that
“The BC” can do for all these people now is to conduct the exams.
By Tatiana Komarova
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