200 teacher training centres in Romania equipped with Sanako Study 1200 language labs

The Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports, has equipped 200 of its teacher training centres with Sanako Study 1200 language labs. The installation was done in July-August, 2011. One hundred of the centres are for teaching English and the other hundred for teaching French. Teacher training on using the new language labs will take place between November 2011 and April 2013. 9000 teachers will be trained during this period.

These 200 language labs are part of the strategic project of the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports. The project objective is to improve the quality of human capital in education by developing teacher skills with modern technology to use digital tools effectively in the teaching of English and other European languages and in standardized assessments. The Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports, is carrying out the project in partnership with SIVECO Romania. The project was started in November, 2010, and will last 30 months. It is co-financed by the European Social Fund Operational Programme, Human Resources Development 2007-2013, Priority 1 – Education and training in support of professional growth and development of a knowledge-based society.

The Sanako Study 1200 language lab makes language teaching interactive and allows students to use the language in situations that can simulate real life. This improves their abilities to use language and to communicate fluently with it – important aspects for the future language teachers.

“The beauty of the product is that, even with basic technology skills, you have access to full language teaching and learning software. However, as you become more advanced in using the technology, the software offers you so many more possibilities,” explains Kimmo Kärpijoki, VP Project Business at Sanako, and continues: ”Because the software is very intuitive to use, it makes the teaching and learning fun, and thus improves the results. The technology is there to help the learning process, not to make it more difficult.”

”We are pleased that the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports, has chosen our Study 1200 language lab. We have done several ministry-level projects every year in different countries and share the belief with the ministries that improving language teaching and learning on a national level can improve any country’s well-being,” says Klaus Koponen, SVP Project Business at Sanako.