News

Education agreement to benefit thousands of students in Macedonia (FYROM)

27 May 2010

A new agreement between The Ministry of Education in Macedonia (FYROM) and language provider Cambridge ESOL will benefit the tens of thousands of teachers and students in the country's primary and elementary education sector.

From this month, the Ministry has begun accepting a number of English language examinations set by the department of Cambridge University as fulfilling English teaching qualification requirements in the sector. This will allow teachers to gain a background in English language ability set to common European quality standards. The agreement follows a growing global trend which is seeing governments across the world are successfully integrating English language teaching into their curriculums.

“Ambitious teachers in the country can now use Cambridge's internationally recognised exams to help them onto the ladder of teaching English in elementary education,” explains Andy Chamberlain, Cambridge ESOL's Regional Manager in the area: “This not only benefits the teachers, but also the students as they have the reassurance that their teachers are working in line with a recognised framework of language ability.”

The full list of exams recognised by the Ministry include First Certificate in English an upper-intermediate level exam, Certificate in Advanced English, Certificate of Proficiency in English and the International English Language Testing System – or IELTS. In addition to gaining one of these exams, individuals can work towards gaining teaching status by completing Cambridge's CELTA examination – an internationally recognised EL teaching qualification from Cambridge ESOL. The agreement says that teachers who have obtained CELTA or any of the aforementioned examinations will be considered having sufficient professional training for foreign language teaching in the primary education sector.