British Council shuts down English-language teaching center
Haaretz
September 15, 2006
By Charlotte Hall

The British Council has shut the doors of its Tel Aviv teaching center and fired seven of its English teachers in a shake-up labeled as "shambolic" by disgruntled staff.

"It's been really badly handled," says British-born teacher Kate Sheffer, who was given her marching orders by the council last week.

Another recently laid-off teacher who asked not to be named called the handling of the closure "absolutely incompetent."

Though the center's shutdown had been threatened for some years, the announcement that no further English courses would be offered as of September 1 was made only on August 31. Students who called the council's teaching center in Ramat Gan during July and August were told that the services were under review. "It was all a bit crazy, a lot of people were left hanging," says another teacher who worked at the center until recently.

The handling of the closure was defended this week by Jim Buttery, director of the Israeli branch of the British Council, which is the official cultural and educational relations arm of the British government. "We advised [people inquiring about autumn semester courses over the summer] of the outcome of the review in August. For those who wished to secure a course place immediately, we advised them of alternative options with other language schools operating locally," he said in a written response following an inquiry from Anglo File.

Buttery said the closure of the center was part of "a strategic refocusing of the way we work with English in order to deepen the impact of our cultural relations work in Israel," and reflected the British Council's "new global strategy to enhance international understanding of contemporary U.K."

He added that staff members were told in advance the teaching center would close no later than March 2007 in order to give them time to look for another job. "When we finally decided on an end date, those teachers directly affected were informed immediately and they received one month's notice, as required by Israeli law," he said.

But Sheffer, who has been employed by the British Council for the best part of 12 years, believes this was not enough. "If a teacher is given notice on September 1, it's really unfair because you've missed the start of the school year. We weren't getting answers one way or another and it was really frustrating. It's been shambolic."

The British Council opened one of the first English-language schools for adults in Israel about 20 years ago, and since then its English courses have been considered to be among the best resourced and best taught in the country. However, enrollment numbers for the council's courses slid following the arrival here of private language schools during the 1990s. Nevertheless, during the last academic year, some 750 students studied English in adult and young learner courses at the council's teaching center in Ramat Gan.

Buttery says that the majority of the council's 17 teachers will continue to teach English to marginalized youth and others outside of the teaching center framework, in conjunction with Israeli bodies such as the Education Ministry and the Clore Foundation. "Rather than people coming to us, we are going out to them, working with local partners," he says.

The council will also continue to run its International English Language Testing Service, through which students who need to prove their level of English to an institution for work, study or immigration purposes are taught and examined.