Mother Tongue-based Literacy Programmes: Case Studies of Good ...

it is well recognized that use of local language for instruction often leads to inclusion of more localcontent in the curriculum, which makes the educational experience of greater relevance to learners. Also,it opens up the possibility for greater participation of parents and community members as classroomresources (World Bank 2005). This, again, is an important consideration because many small linguisticgroups generally live in remote locations underserved by adequate infrastructure and human resources.It should be recognized, too, that many children attending schools in these areas may be first-generationlearners. In such contexts, use of local resources carries significant value both from immediate andlong-term perspectives. Further, when instruction is in the mother tongue, teachers and learners caninteract more naturally and negotiate meanings together, which greatly improves the effectiveness ofthe learning process. (Baker 2001: 238)Of course, changing the language of instruction does not solve all of the problems of the school system.In a multilingual society, there are different attitudes towards different languages, different expectationsfrom different languages and different uses for different languages. Balancing all these factors within theschool curriculum means teaching more than one language or even teaching through more than onelanguage that is deemed to be pedagogically appropriate and socio-politically acceptable. It is followingsuch an argument that bilingual and multilingual education programmes have taken shape. Theseprogrammes require careful crafting in order to ensure that young children are not over-burdened. Mostsuch programmes involve beginning with teaching through mother tongue and gradually transitioningto the standard language. One has to be careful because premature transition to the second languagefrom mother tongue use can jeopardize a child’s ability to master skills in both languages and, eventually,learn in any subject. These considerations are equally relevant in framing the curriculum for non-formalprogrammes of bilingual education.Another caution is with respect to assessing the value of such programmes. Over-emphasis on learningoutcomes as measured through standard tests can counter the very philosophy of teaching throughthe mother tongue. Mere test scores do not tell the whole story of impact. One has to recognize thenewly discovered pride regarding minority people’s home languages and cultures that accompanysuch programmes in a multilingual context. Real impact of this positive feeling on further learningis immeasurable. Furthermore, use of the mother tongue in the official context of school elevates itsstatus and usefulness in the eyes of both speakers and non-speakers, which has the potential to improvesocial relations and political participation as well as education. Parents lose their fear of the school andovercome the sense of divorce and alienation from the larger society as they are finally allowed to use alanguage they speak to communicate with the teacher.The Asian Context of Linguistic DiversityThe linguistic variety that one finds in Asia is astounding. This, indeed, is cause for celebration as well asa challenge. The expectation on education systems to contribute to the preservation of this linguisticdiversity is quite natural and poses one of the biggest challenges for EFA progress in the region. Thesimple fact that just seven countries (see Table 1) are home to 1,644 living languages demonstratesthe robust resilience of these linguistic sub-cultures because most of these countries have adopted anational policy with only one or two official languages. At the same time, it is important to realize thatthe vast majority of these languages are used for spoken communication only. Thus, there is a real riskthat many of these languages may be eventually lost. As Table 1 indicates, a number of languages withinthe case study group countries have already become extinct.[7 ]