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

Minister of Education Chaturong Chaiseng, who was appointed on 4 August 2005, is committed tocreating educational policies and practices supportive of bilingual education for minority languagespeakers. The experiences of NPKOM are thus informing policy discussions at the highest levels.Origin of the ProjectSince the 1970s, the Office of the Non-Formal Education Commission (ONFEC) and its predecessor, theDepartment of Non-Formal Education (DNFE), had been involved in special educational programmesfor the northern Thai hilltribes. Specialized curriculums were developed. Young, idealistic Thai universitygraduates were posted as volunteer teachers to remote villages, often serving heroically under verydifficult conditions. Nonetheless, all teaching was done in the Thai language, and some officials withinONFEC were frustrated by less-than-hoped-for results. National literacy surveys showed that the Northlagged behind other regions of the country.In November 2001, ONFEC officials attended UNESCO’s Regional Workshop on Functional Literacy forIndigenous People, held in Raipur, Chattisgargh State, India. There they were involved in discussionsabout how mother-tongue-first multilingual education programmes could enhance ethnic minorityeducation. Several consultations between ONFEC, UNESCO and SIL International followed, resulting ina September 2002 proposal for a pilot bilingual education programme among the Pwo Karen people ofOmkoi. This proposal would be followed by additional proposals as the project expanded.Brief Profile of Project SiteNPKOM is situated in two villages of the Northern Pwo Karen ethnic minority, located in the mountainousnorthern province of Chiang Mai. The people of these villages are agriculturalists and have littleopportunity to interact with the outside world. Many wear traditional clothing, crafted on the looms ofvillage women. Although these communities are quite rustic, living conditions have improved recentlydue to Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s development projects. These have includedprogrammes to improve health and nutrition (through small gardens), provide electricity (through solarpanels), conserve the natural environment, and build community learning centres (CLCs).Implementation ProcessA Strong Start (2003)In 2003, Stage 1 of the project began when ONFEC received a one-year grant from UNESCO for initialresearch and materials development for NPKOM. Activities in that first year included:•••••Selection of project sites and surveying of learning needs (January-February)Orthography development (March-May)Learning materials production (July-August)Teacher trainingEvaluation of initial results[ 148 ]