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

would there be projects to cover all the languages in any country? The task cannot be accomplishedwithout active support, both in terms of policies and finances, from the respective national governments.There is a need for mass-scale efforts nationally and internationally to mobilize societal and politicalsupport for extending such programmes to cover all linguistic minorities. Successes achieved throughthe action projects in different countries of Asia would definitely be of great value for launching such aprogramme of political advocacy.What is the current state of the projects? What has happened to those who underwent theseprogrammes? These are legitimate questions, and they invariably invoke the issue of funding. Fundingfor continuation of a project is an important question, but it is not the only one. It is important to notethat sustenance and continuity of such literacy programmes essentially depend, in the long run, oncreating a robust lifelong learning environment. This would imply making available a rich source ofliterature to read and institutional arrangements such as public libraries, where mother tongue readingmaterials could be easily accessible. This demands investment to promote authors and creative writersto write and produce literature in minority languages. We have also to invest substantially in convertingoral literary resources into written ones and preserving them for easy access. Modern technology couldaid enormously in all such efforts.The action projects reviewed here should not be viewed merely as experiments in the Education sector.They, no doubt, represent significant advancements in understanding the dynamics of introducingbilingual and mother tongue literacy programmes to children and adults in varying linguistic contexts.However, their value goes much beyond this. It should be noted that the participants of these programmesbelonged to minority groups that are relatively disadvantaged. Educational progress among them isbelow the national average, and they live in regions that are relatively underserved and underdeveloped.When indicators from impact assessments of the projects are taken, they demonstrate that such projectshold enormous value by improving people’s quality of life. They have tremendous potential as povertyreduction strategies – reducing not only income poverty, but also “capability poverty” through educationthat effectively empowers people to access developmental resources hitherto denied.Finally, projects that preserve linguistic diversity and provide mother tongue education have also tobe viewed as an integral component of sustainable development. Indeed, sustainable developmentdoes not consist merely of cutting down greenhouse gases or preserving the flora and fauna, it equallyconsists of preserving and nurturing human sub-cultures along with their ways and means of living. Inthis endeavour, minority group languages occupy a central place. Certainly, teaching through mothertongue in schools and other education programmes lays the foundation for any long-term national andinternational effort in this direction.[ 25 ]