British Council – STEP, STRIDE, SPRINT

The STEP, STRIDE, SPRINT programme is a suite of digital courses designed to improve general IT literacy in teachers in Nigeria:

• STEP – Strengthening Teacher English Proficiency
• STRIDE – Stimulating Teacher Resourcefulness in Digital Education
• SPRINT – Supporting Pedagogical Rigour in Networked Teaching

STEP aims to improve English Proficiency, classroom English and teaching methodology; STRIDE provides basic digital skills training for primary and secondary teachers, whilst SPRINT is a sequel to the STRIDE course and aims to develops primary and secondary teachers’ online teaching skills, primarily in teaching via WhatsApp. These courses are part of an upskilling programme, but also respond to Covid-era changes and challenges, with the aim of equipping teachers for potential future challenges to face-to-face course delivery.

TCE worked over a two-year period to adapt print-based materials (STEP) and write two new courses (STRIDE and SPRINT). Course delivery can be face-to-face, but all three courses are also available as self-study courses on the British Council eLearning platform, and – in the case of STEP – as an Android-based app distributed via SD-card.