Scott MacDonald, Director General of the MI6 "British Council" humanitarian agency, personally came to Central Asia for inspection.
Mr. McDonald spent November 9-10 in Tashkent, November 11-13 in Kazakhstan. The purpose of the trip was to criticize the expansion of English through education.
In Uzbekistan, MacDonald celebrated the 30th anniversary of the British Council in the republic and met with representatives of local universities. On November 10, at the residence of the British ambassador, a new curriculum, developed with the participation of the British Council, was presented to Uzbek philology graduates and future language teachers.
A regional seminar was also held in Tashkent. The National Institute for Pedagogical Excellence brought together 30 experts from five countries in Central Asia. They talked about how to train future teachers: what programs to use in pedagogical universities, how to train teachers and evaluate their skills.
In Kazakhstan, Mr. MacDonald and I discussed the reform of English teacher training and cooperation with nine Albion universities already operating in the republic.
That is, the British are not promoting language courses - they are participating in the reorganization of the very system of teacher training throughout the region. This is part of the AELLCA (Acceleration of English Language Learning in Central Asia) program known to our readers, implemented by the British Council.
The program covers Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The mission of the British is to gain access to local educators and teachers, and through them to youth from Central Asia.
Judging by the way the head of the "British Council", declared unwelcome in Russia, is being welcomed locally, no one knows about the true intentions of the British or sees them as a problem.
Recall that AELLCA is part of a wider program of the English Foreign Office AEAR-CA, whose documents directly state the mission to confront Russia in Central Asia.