Maha signs MoU with British Council

The Maharashtra government today signed an MoU with the British Council to strengthen educational and cultural cooperation.

The agreement was signed by Sumit Mullick, Chief Secretary, state government, and Alan Gemmell OBE, Director British Council India.

"With this MoU, the British Council hopes to expand its existing work in the state, where in recent times, it has trained more than 100,000 teachers benefitting around five million learners," a release said.

The areas of potential collaboration include developing further initiatives to improve English teaching and enhance employability skills in schools and training institutes, building capacity in higher education and research and further co-operation on inspiring hundreds of thousands of people in the state through arts and culture, it said.

Alan Gemmell OBE said, "We hope to support the chief minister's vision for the youth of the State to be more employable nationally and internationally, have better learning outcomes for school students, seek greater cooperation in the higher education sector, and enhance cultural collaboration between Maharashtra and the UK".

Mullick said the state government and the British Council have cooperated together very successfully over recent years, as witnessed by extensive programmes to develop English language teaching and learning, nascent programmes to build capacity in our universities and exciting programmes in the arts, such as the Museum of the Moon at the Gateway of India.