Erican: We’ll do our best to raise English standards

KUALA LUMPUR: Erican College will do its part to help the Education Ministry raise English standards among students and English teachers.

“Under our corporate social responsibility (CSR), the largest scale activity will be the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) conference for English school teachers.

“We will have four local and international English Language Training specialists at this conference,” said founder and managing director Datuk Eric Chong at the launch of the “Erican for Schools 2018” project.

He added the initiative was a proactive step towards the expansion of students’ academic achievements and marketability.

Chong said the conference, which is free of charge, will focus on implementing CEFR systematically and effectively in schools, as well as enriching and sharing best practices.

Erican will also be offering scholarships, conducting English language workshops for various state education departments, leadership and career guidance workshops for secondary school students, and a public awareness campaign on CEFR, said Chong.

“The conference will provoke teachers’ thoughts and intrigue them to get them excited about teaching,” he said.

CEFR is a guide developed by the Council of Europe to gauge foreign language proficiency.

It has six levels of competencies; A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Chong Sin Woon, who launched Erican’s CSR project, said this was in line with the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025, which intends to upskill English teachers to reach the level of C1 or C2 – the highest CEFR grades.