By Praveen Yadav
Dear President of NELTA,
I would like to congratulate you for being elected as a new president of NELTA unanimously. I wish you all the best as you shoulder immense responsibilities of the biggest organization of English language learners, teachers, ELT practitioners, methodologists, textbooks/materials writers, teacher trainers, etc. I believe you would put your efforts in making the dream of our advisors Prof. Dr. JR Awasthi, Prof. Dr. GR Bhattarai and Prof. Dr. Abhi Subedi come true during your tenure.
There is a very common quotation by our grandparents in our rural areas of Terai that to buy an elephant is expensive but to keep the elephant is more expensive. Likewise, it is difficult to get elected as president but to shoulder the responsibilities of NELTA as president till the term is more difficult. I hope you would shoulder the responsibilities honestly, efficiently and diligently. You have developed leadership and it is now up to you how you would lead 19 executive members, more than 1630 life members and 29 branches across the country.
All the members of NELTA across the country wanted you to chair NELTA with a lot of aspiration and expectation. I hope you would respect their aspiration and expectation and act accordingly to fulfill them.
We should not forget JR Awasthi guru’s quote, “WE ARE NELTA.” I believe this is the spirit of the organization. We should not also forget “UNITY IS STRENGTH.” Here unity means the unity of our branches. Our branches from Mechi to Mahakali and from the Mountains to Terai are the strength of NELTA. I hope you would maintain and develop mutual relationship and close coordination between NELTA central and NELTA branches. This is only possible when you visit the branches time and again and help organize different sorts of trainings, workshops, seminars, meetings, conferences and the like in the branches. Besides, representatives from respective branches could be invited in the meetings of NELTA central and circulate the minutes through yahoo mail groups or NELTA Choutari. This will make the organization transparent among all those associated with this. This is the mantra that will help us increase our new members and new branches.
Dear President, let’s develop a learning and positive organization culture in NELTA. You’d better to apply team approach, participatory decision-making practices, financial transparency and accountability and timeliness with a high quality of performance for the welfare of the organization. Participatory decision making, team building, appreciative inquiry, learning and doing, coordination & networking and collaboration with concerning stakeholders are the approaches that can make our NELTA alive and unique.
As you are the one member of last executive committee, you are familiar with its shortcomings. The then committee has already done a tremendous work, but it might have been still trying to coordinate with our branches and advisors of NELTA at the desired level. However, we are very optimistic to see minimizing the drawbacks in the past during the tenure of the newly elected Executive committee. I hope the new executive committee will bridge the gap between the central and its branches and strengthen organizational relationship.
NELTA, no doubt, explores the opportunities for English language fellows in Nepal. You are kindly advised to coordinate with all the branches while recommending our members for those opportunities. This will be an added value in your leadership in three years of your tenure.
We are well-acquainted with the fact that collaboration is a must for NELTA to explore and mobilize its resources across the country to promote the teaching and learning of English language in Nepal sustainably. NELTA has been collaborating with British Council, American Embassy, Ministry of Education, Room to Read, and SNV-Nepal. At present AIN (Association of International NGOs in Nepal) comprises more than 80 INGOs have been working on a wide-range of issues and sectors to contribute to development efforts in Nepal. Dear President, we hope you would be able to collaborate with these organizations in the days to come during your tenure since ELT is also a kind of development and it can also be used to promote human rights.
English language in a New Nepal can stand as an icon of unity and national harmony since all other languages have been supposed to belong to specific communities. English can be an instrument to strengthen loktantra and promote human rights. To make the government of Nepal realize the facts, NELTA can play a crucial role as the nation is undergoing a transitional stage and everything is in a state of flux. Then the government would ponder over a language policy, in general, and ELT strategy, in particular.
We hope you would learn from the mistakes of the predecessors and be able to put your efforts in minimizing them. You have the moment and the opportunity to put NELTA on the right course to achieve the mission, vision, goals and objectives of NELTA.
Nice quotation “To buy an elephant is expensive but to keep the elephant is more expensive.
Really, to keep something rolling is more challenging than just to make it roll once. Of course! It is not a joke to keep an elephant. And, it is much more challenging if the same elephant should start to raise several questions!!
Very interesting letter to the newly elected president of NELTA. This letter motivate the new President to do his duty in accordance to the mission, vision, goals and objectives of NELTA.