By Ben Garcia

KUWAIT: AMIDEAST, in collaboration with the ministry of education, organized recently a virtual distribution (via Zoom) of certificates for the Professional Certificate in English Language Teaching (PCELT). The attendees included Minister of Education Ali Al-Mudhaf, Assistant Undersecretary Osama Al-Sultan and General English Language Supervisor Suzan Al-Bashiti, who collaborate with the US Embassy on PCELT and many other English training and exchange programs. The training program was made possible with the support of Hamad Al-Matar (Zain) and Bernie Dunn (Boeing).

US Ambassador to Kuwait Alina L Romanowski thanked Samar Khleif, Janice Quinn and the team at AMIDEAST for delivering the PCELT course despite the most unusual and challenging circumstances. "We appreciate your work and we look forward to our next collaboration. Because of everyone's cooperation, we trained 24 outstanding Kuwaiti educators in the 2020 PCELT program," the envoy said.

"To all the 2020 graduates of PCELT, congratulations! Some of you have been waiting since last February for this ceremony, and I'm glad that we are finally able to recognize your hard work and dedication," Romanowski added. She said the COVID outbreak forced many to delay the PCELT training and this ceremony, but added the job of educating students must continue even during a global pandemic.

"That is why I am so grateful that the ministry of education, for the past four years, has allowed some of its best English educators to participate in PCELT," Romanowski said. "Although I'm sure it was unusual for some of you to work with a trainer who was mounted on top of a robot, I hope that you found the experience rewarding. Thank you for your commitment to continuing to learn and improve your craft of teaching."

Romanowski said being selected for and completing the PCELT course is a great achievement and students should be proud of themselves. "The US Embassy provides many training and exchange programs for Kuwaiti educators. Please feel free to reach out to our Cultural Attaché Nelson Wen for more information about these opportunities," she said.