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

Also, it was important to identify and incorporate linguistically and culturally relevant symbols, imagesand metaphors for teaching different contents through the mother tongue medium. As already noted,the minority languages invariably have unique histories linked to specific minority ethnic groups. Thechallenge is to determine the right balance in presenting learning subject matter via these historicalconnections on the one hand, and via current concerns and developments that are captured throughthe majority language texts, on the other. With a view to addressing this sensitive question, the projectimplementers recognized that solutions for such issues have to be locally orchestrated by involving thecommunity members – active speakers of the native language.A third issue to be addressed in the preparation of teaching-learning material and training of teacherswas related to the nature of the programmes and the target groups the projects addressed. In somecases, the projects were organizing non-formal programmes with the objective of imparting mothertongue literacy skills to adults through suitably designed literacy curricula. This, indeed, was the casein Cambodia, India, Nepal, and Indonesia. The organizers had considerable freedom in deciding thelevel at which the material was to be pitched and the nature of the contents to be included. However,the projects that attempted to address children in formal school settings had a bigger challenge toface. In these cases, the learning material had to be carefully graded so as to be comparable with thosenationally defined for the children learning through the mainstream language, especially in terms oflanguage proficiency levels and competencies in various subject areas.Thus, developers of the mother tongue literacy projects had to address a number of critical questions:Who will write the material? What kind of preparatory work has to be done for producing the learningmaterial? Should original material be written or could translated material from the main language beused? How should one ensure that local stories and contexts are built into the texts being produced? Whatsteps should be taken to ensure the comparability of competencies represented by the texts in mothertongue with the national-level curricular prescription? Who will teach through the mother tongue? Howdo we ensure that the teachers, who themselves have not studied through mother tongue, would beable to do justice to the language in their teaching? What kind of training should the teachers be given?There were no straightforward answers to these questions that could be applied to all the contexts.They had to be, in fact, addressed in innovative ways in each of the projects. The following paragraphshighlight some of the unique efforts undertaken to address these questions in different projects.The Bangaldesh project, which chose to focus at the primary school level, had to carefully examinethe policies of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board for primary education, which lays strongemphasis on development of core learning skills such as reading, writing, arithmetic and life skills. Thefirst challenge faced was to identify writers from within the Oraon community who could develop andwrite stories and learning materials. An illustrator added appropriate pictures to the texts to reflectadivasi culture, tradition and practices. It was ensured that the primers were graded to suit the ageand developmental stage of the children . To make them engaging, the primers also included originalstories and narratives of local specific personal experiences; songs, poetry, traditional folktales, and localhistories; information about geography and travel; instructional texts about health and religious, moraland ethical messages; and social issues of local concern. The texts and the illustrations were refined basedon feedback gathered from the students and teachers before making it final. In all these efforts, peoplefrom the community were actively associated. A female from the community with requisite academicqualification was chosen and given intensive training to teach through Sadri in a laboratory schoolespecially designed for the purpose. That training included subject-related instruction, pedagogy, child[ 18 ]