Context
The Programa Nacional de Inglés (PRONI) is Mexico’s federal initiative to strengthen English-language teaching and learning in public basic education (pre-school, primary, and secondary levels). PRONI aims to expand access to quality English instruction by providing participating schools with trained teachers, pedagogical support, and instructional materials and promotes communicative competence in English as part of a broader national strategy to prepare learners for global engagement and to reduce educational inequities across diverse regions.
In 2020 the British Council conducted national research with stakeholders at different levels of PRONI, to gather the main insights of the programme and to obtain the opinion of stakeholders and policy makers in country.
To further deepen that research, in 2022, TELT was commissioned by British Council to design, plan, implement and report on the main insights of a need analysis at a national level, and to design an M&E framework for British Council programmes, aligned to British Council global standards.
A mixed-methods approach was used to systematically describe and evaluate the curricula, teaching materials, assessment practices, teacher support and development, teacher training outcomes and programme quality assurance across four socio-economically contrasting states.
The project was completed in five phases:
- Phase 1: Design and planning of need analysis
- Phase 2: Data collection of need analysis
- Phase 3: Data collation and reporting
- Phase 4: Design and planning of MEL framework
- Phase 5: Data collection, collation, and reporting of MEL framework
Impact
Research results were organised in the following areas:
- State and School Policy
- Teacher Training and Development
- Curriculum and School Materials
A range of insights and recommendations were included in the final report – the resulting dossiers are being used by the state governments to inform future ELT development.
In 2025, we were invited to expand on those original findings in light of the new education reform programme Nueva Escuela Mexicana (NEM), re-examining the genesis and evolution of the PRONI programme and seeking to identify the extent to which NEM has adopted, or been influenced by, the pedagogical principles and practices of PRONI.