Selection <strong>of</strong> Project Site and Situational AnalysisASHRAI decided to address the language needs <strong>of</strong> the Oraon community primarily because there hadbeen no earlier initiative to preserve and promote the Oraon’s languages despite the Oraon being thesecond largest indigenous group in Bangladesh’s plains region. Following this decision, an ASHRAIresearch team (under the leadership <strong>of</strong> Pr<strong>of</strong>essor A.Jalil, Phd <strong>of</strong> Rajshahi University) undertook anextensive survey <strong>of</strong> the languages spoken by the Oraon, as well as the location <strong>of</strong> where each languagewas spoken.The survey was done through the tribal students who were studying or had studied at Rajshahi University.The survey team was oriented on survey techniques and interviewing for collecting information andholding focus group discussions prior to their field work. Primary information about the concentrations<strong>of</strong> the tribal population, known as “Adivasi” in Bangla, and leaders <strong>of</strong> the communities were collectedbeforehand from different sources, such as organizations working with indigenous communities, tribalpr<strong>of</strong>essionals working with different governmental (GO) and non-government (NGO) services and Adivasistaff <strong>of</strong> ASHRAI. Surveyors were supervised by the Chief Researcher and Sr. Programme Organizer.The survey revealed the districts, as identified above, in which the Oraon are found. It was also foundthat the Oraon communities speak two different languages. One is Sadri and the other is Kurukh. Bothare oral and having no alphabet <strong>of</strong> their own, but are used at home and within the scope <strong>of</strong> local dayto-daycommunity activity. Further, it was observed that the overwhelming majority <strong>of</strong> Oraon speakSadri, and only a section <strong>of</strong> the community that lives in Rangpur and parts <strong>of</strong> Dinajpur districts speakKurukh. As a language, Sadri is spoken widely in different districts among the Oraon people, and many<strong>of</strong> the words are similar to Bangla. For instance, the word “mango” in English is called “aam” in Bangla and”amba” in Sadri. Also, Sadri uses some adopted Bangla words due to the Oraon people’s long associationwith the Bangla-speaking communities. Indeed, many Oraon can either speak or understand Banglawell. Unlike Sadri, Kurukh is still in its original form and not easily understandable by the neighboringpeople; nor do Kurukh speakers understand Bangla easily.The survey also identified:i) Key sources <strong>of</strong> information in the Oraon communitiesii) Oraon community leadersiii) Oraon students reading in higher classes <strong>of</strong> the secondary level, colleges and universitiesiv) Oraon people working with GOs and NGOsv) Oraon teachersvi) Oraon singers and storytellersvii) village doctors working in Oraon communitiesThe research team leader, Pr<strong>of</strong>essor A. Jilal, was a pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong> Bangla who has published a book aboutthe culture and life <strong>of</strong> the Oraon. Other members <strong>of</strong> the team included community persons and eminenteducationists from various institutions in the country.The team emphasized community mobilization and the participative approach for successfulimplementation <strong>of</strong> the project activities. For this reason, several community meetings were organizedin different villages to explain the purpose <strong>of</strong> the project. During these meetings, community membersassured the team that they would give their full participation and cooperation for developing literacyprogrammes in their Sadri language.[ 33 ]
Orthography DevelopmentDuring early decision-making about the project, ASHRAI faced two primary questions: which Oraonlanguage to focus on and what kind <strong>of</strong> writing systems to use (neither Oraon language had a writtenscript). To answer these questions, the team rightly decided to leave the selections to communitymembers, themselves, to decide. Accordingly, ASHRAI organized a 3-day workshop in Rajshahi forcommunity leaders, students, teacher/pr<strong>of</strong>essors, GO and NGO Oraon pr<strong>of</strong>essionals, and key informationsources from all the districts <strong>of</strong> Rajshahi. The workshop was facilitated by the Chief Researcher.The participants were very enthusiastic, and actively participated in discussions freely and frankly. Afterreviewing the pros and cons <strong>of</strong> all the proposals made during the discussion, participants unanimouslyagreed that Sadri should be chosen for developing their mother language-<strong>based</strong> education and forintroduction into their children’s primary education.Decision on OrthographyDeciding the orthography or script in which the Sadri language would be expressed and written wasa more challenging question. Language is very much associated with one’s emotion, attitude, politicalbelief/ambition, expectation and, above all, reality. Many discussions, arguments and counter argumentstook place during the workshop. However, after elaborate discussions, participants agreed thatdeveloping a new alphabet or using a foreign script would not be helpful for learning nor advantageousfor mainstreaming into the country’s education system. Since the Oraon people had been living withthe Bangalee community for generations and the Bangla alphabet was familiar to them, it was decidedthat it would better serve the children to use the Bangla script for Sandri. This would allow them to learnBangla quicker and acquire competencies in Bangla-<strong>based</strong> education faster. This decision also made iteasier for the research team to develop curriculum and educational materials in Sadri.Identification <strong>of</strong> Learning NeedsFollowing the decisions regarding language and script selection, the identification <strong>of</strong> learning needswas a major issue. The research team wanted to involve the community in determining the children’slearning needs so that age-appropriate graded education materials could be developed according toreal practical need and expectation. Accordingly, the team held meetings with all the various stakeholdergroups, and collected recommendations for best designing the project.The team then held a series <strong>of</strong> workshops in order to review the collected information and decide aboutthe learning needs. All the stakeholders were invited to participate in this task.Participants reviewed the findings and gave their thoughtful opinion about their expectations foran education programme that would enable their children to acquire competencies similar to thosethat children who that would uphold and allow to flourish their own cultural and traditional practices.Thus, during this workshop, a material development team was formed to act as an extended arm <strong>of</strong> theresearch team. Teachers, university/college students, a village doctor and educated community leaderswho were willing to spare time and work for development <strong>of</strong> the educational materials were included onthe team. Later, this team sat with the other workshop participants to finalize the list <strong>of</strong> learning needsfor further curriculum and material development.[ 34 ]
- Page 1 and 2: Mother Tongue-basedLiteracy Program
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- Page 5 and 6: ContentsAcronymsviPartI 1Mother Ton
- Page 7 and 8: AcronymsIndiaZSSTLCPLPCEIPCLGZSSSRC
- Page 9 and 10: PartI
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- Page 14 and 15: Entrenchment of the common (majorit
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- Page 22 and 23: their normal lives and communicatio
- Page 24 and 25: the project ensured that community
- Page 26 and 27: Also, it was important to identify
- Page 28 and 29: conservation. Tharu traditional pra
- Page 31 and 32: In Thailand, participation in schoo
- Page 33 and 34: would there be projects to cover al
- Page 35 and 36: © UNESCO/D. Riewpituk
- Page 37 and 38: BackgroundBangladesh is a delta lan
- Page 39: As a consequence, literacy rates am
- Page 43 and 44: and discussion in the plenary, age-
- Page 45 and 46: qualifications in the tribal commun
- Page 47 and 48: Before opening the school, the rese
- Page 49 and 50: Networking with Other Organizations
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- Page 55 and 56: Awareness Creation and Opinion Form
- Page 57 and 58: Table 2: At-a-Glance Status of MT S
- Page 59 and 60: Tasks for National and Internationa
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- Page 63 and 64: BackgroundCurrent Situation of Mino
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- Page 67 and 68: Process and Cost of Developing and
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- Page 71 and 72: Impact of the ProjectImpact on Educ
- Page 73 and 74: NetworkingThe MoEYS and UNESCO have
- Page 75 and 76: Komly Boek: Bilingual NFE TeacherMy
- Page 77 and 78: © Norman Geary
- Page 79 and 80: BackgroundThe Kam 1 of south centra
- Page 81 and 82: ‘Rice feeds the body, songs feed
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Thus, the book-fees for a child to
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advisers to the Project since its b
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Capacity to Learn the National Lang
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they were persuaded of its value (t
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detached from the village and diffe
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© State Resource Centre Assam
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BackgroundIndia is home to a large
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In the case of adult literacy, we h
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Curriculum and Learning Materials D
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About 70 volunteer teachers were en
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The majority of the learners have c
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the regional language and finally t
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[ 108 ]© BP-PLSP
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In attempting to meet one of the go
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Indonesian Policies on Mother Tongu
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Nature and LivelihoodCommunity peop
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No. Material Time1. The Policy of S
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Networking with CommunityMembers, G
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BP-PLSP Region II has distributed a
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Impact of theProgrammeThe KFBI prog
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Phase II. Learning activities inclu
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After learning some skills, learner
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© BASE
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© BASEBackground‘If we stop usin
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een forced into bonded labor. Cultu
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cows, bulls, sheep, and goats) kept
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Most of the NFE programmes implemen
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The Key Word Approach was used whil
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how to read and write which helps t
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In short, the Tharu mother tongue l
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© ONFEC
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In 2006, Thailand celebrated an aus
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Minister of Education Chaturong Cha
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All of the NPKOM teachers have asso
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simple sentence structures and much
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Teaching Plan: Bridging to the Nati
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Impact of the ProjectImpact on Educ
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een minimal, as books developed by
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Annexes
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Annex 2: ReferencesMother Tongue Li
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Lindholm-Leary, K. 2001. Dual Langu