Today, U.S. Embassy Cairo Minister Counselor for Public Affairs Lauren Lovelace delivered closing remarks to the graduates of Al Azhar Institutes English Teacher Training Program, noting, “Your work at Al Azhar makes an important difference in the lives of young Egyptians.  Thank you for your dedication to your students and helping other teachers!”     

In partnership with Al Azhar Institutes, the U.S. Embassy sponsored the first iteration of “The Basics of English Language Teaching to Young Learners” for 30 teachers and “The Art of Effective Supervising & Mentoring” for 30 supervisors from July 25 to October 20, 2021, a program supporting educators in all 27 governorates of Egypt. This training was conducted virtually by Samar Aal – an American teacher development expert selected from the U.S. Department of State’s prestigious English Language Specialist roster – who facilitated classes twice per week. 

Upon completion of these courses, each graduate is assigned 10 colleagues with whom they share knowledge gained in this program to “pay it forward.” In turn, thousands of Egyptian Al-Azhar students benefit from improved pedagogy.

For his part, Sheikh Ahmed Abdel Azeem, Deputy to the Head of Al Azhar Institutes Sector, said, “I would like to give thanks to the U.S. Embassy for the fruitful cooperation that we are seeing with the graduation of the first cohort of English language teachers and supervisors. We hope to continue this cooperation between our nations.”

Since 2006, the U.S. Embassy has invested $11 million to sponsor more than 6,000 Egyptian students to learn English communication skills. In addition, every year hundreds of English teachers across the country attend Embassy-sponsored professional development seminars and events that improve English language skills for more than 800,000 students.