Karitas for Santal, SIL Bangladesh for Bishnupriya and so on. Indeed, it appears that awareness <strong>of</strong> MLE isincreasing daily, and it is expected that the Government will come forward to take appropriate action inthe near future.That said, in May 2006, a study was carried out by Interaction (a private education organization) to assessthe situation in Naogaon District. The study revealed that about 80 percent <strong>of</strong> Adivasi children dropout <strong>of</strong> school due to: (1) linguistic problems, (2) cultural problems, (3) discrimination between Adivasistudents and other students, and (4) poverty.In this context, it should be mentioned here that some NGOs - including ASHRAI - are operatingschools in the Naogaon region. These schools conduct classes in the Adivasi people’s language for theAdivasi population. The enrolment rate, attendance, dropout rate and rate <strong>of</strong> pass <strong>of</strong> these schools aresatisfactory. Thus, it would certainly appear that the language in which classes are conducted makes adramatic difference in the quality and consequent outcome <strong>of</strong> education provision.Again in the workshop on 18 August 2006 on popularizing MLE in Rajshahi, Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Chittaranjonthanked ASHRAI for its Mohoti Uddyog (noble effort) for developing Sadri language and <strong>of</strong>feringeducation to the Oraon children in mother language.As Bijoy Minj, an ARP school student stated, “I like to go to my school as the books are in Sadri, mylanguage, and my teacher also speaks my language in the school.”It is hoped that the positive effects gained so far will influence the national-level policy planners, andthat the day will soon come when mother tongue-<strong>based</strong> education for minority ethno-linguistic groupswill be standardized throughout the country.Impact on Learner EnrollmentIn May 2006, ASHRAI published an assessment report which found that <strong>of</strong> seven districts, 27 upa-zilasand 1,372 villages in Rajshahi, 67,162 children <strong>of</strong> ages between 6 to 12+ were found to be enrolled inGrades 1-5. Of them, 31,788 children dropped out in the same year. Of these dropouts, 13,952 wereAdivasi children (49% boys and 51% girls).As for the ARP students, all 25 children who began the project in 2003 at Agholpur village are still carryingout their studies in the school in Class-IV. Thusfar, only one girl has dropped out <strong>of</strong> Class-III (which wasstarted in Idolpur village in 2004) due to her marriage, and only two boys in Class-II have dropped outfrom the 2005 Agholpur group (their mothers left parents houses to live with their husbands followingresolution <strong>of</strong> conjugal disputes). There have not been any dropout cases in Chpai Nowabgonj andJoypurhat district schools. This clearly indicates that dropout from Sadri schools is almost negligible.Research on Effectiveness <strong>of</strong> <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Tongue</strong> EducationAshrai’s Action Research Project aimed at improving the level <strong>of</strong> learners’ achievement through educationin their mother tongue at the primary levels. With a financial grant from UNESCO Bangkok ,the projecthas developed a multilingual learning model that has encompassed all the elements <strong>of</strong> teaching andlearning. The major activities <strong>of</strong> this project were to prepare appropriate materials and teachers’ guides,supplementary materials and teachers’ training. The hypothesis was that with appropriate learningmaterials and mother tongue instruction, learning achievement would increase in time.[ 43 ]
A small baseline study was conducted to establish the level <strong>of</strong> learners’ achievement at the end <strong>of</strong>Grade-1 in 2004. Again in 2005, another study was done to measure the learning achievements <strong>of</strong> thesame group <strong>of</strong> learners. The data was then compared with the baseline to measure the impact <strong>of</strong> theinterventions.Methodology and AnalysisThe baseline study was designed to capture the levels <strong>of</strong> learners’ competencies upon leaving Grade-1,according to the national curriculum. The data was collected through two tests given to the learnersas a quarterly exam in October 2004. The tests were prepared and administered by the teachers <strong>of</strong> theARP schools. Later they scored the scripts, and the scores were collected by ARP staff in order to createa baseline. The tests that were prepared were achievement tests to measure the competency levels <strong>of</strong>the learners at the end <strong>of</strong> a certain period <strong>of</strong> intervention. There were tests for Language, Mathematicsand Social Sciences.In the middle <strong>of</strong> 2005, another data collection protocol was planned to capture the learners’ achievementsfor the same baseline group. This time another set <strong>of</strong> data was collected from a nearby governmentschool for learners <strong>of</strong> the same age group and level (Class-II) in order to compare the baseline groups’achievements with the mainstream learners.The data was collected through two separate tests at the ARP (Idolpur ARP School) and government(Sonadighi Government Primary School, Godagari, Rajshahi) schools. The tests were prepared by theteachers <strong>of</strong> the respective schools, and also were administered by them. Thirty students were consideredas a sample size in both schools for the impact assessment.Figure 1: Average Marks <strong>of</strong> MT Programme Learners403530252015105033.371428627.314285720.6571429Language Math Environmental <strong>Studies</strong>SubjectsAccording to the impact data, the average marks for Hamar Boi (language) was 32.571, for Mathematicswas 30.17 and for Social Science was 36.85. Figure 2 shows a comparison <strong>of</strong> the impact testing with thebaseline marks <strong>of</strong> the same subjects.[ 44 ]
- Page 1 and 2: Mother Tongue-basedLiteracy Program
- Page 3 and 4: Mother Tongue-based Literacy Progra
- Page 5 and 6: ContentsAcronymsviPartI 1Mother Ton
- Page 7 and 8: AcronymsIndiaZSSTLCPLPCEIPCLGZSSSRC
- Page 9 and 10: PartI
- Page 11: Mother TongueLiteracy Programmesin
- Page 14 and 15: Entrenchment of the common (majorit
- Page 16 and 17: Table 1: Linguistic Contexts of the
- Page 18 and 19: It may be noted that there is no re
- Page 20 and 21: “If we stop using our language, i
- 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 and 40: As a consequence, literacy rates am
- Page 41 and 42: Orthography DevelopmentDuring early
- 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: Networking with Other Organizations
- Page 53 and 54: parents of the children studying in
- 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
- Page 61 and 62: © POEYS
- Page 63 and 64: BackgroundCurrent Situation of Mino
- Page 65 and 66: of instruction, but the Bunong chil
- Page 67 and 68: Process and Cost of Developing and
- Page 69 and 70: vocabulary, containing only sounds
- 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
- Page 83 and 84: (Putonghua) in education. Neverthel
- Page 85 and 86: do anything else with Chinese. Now
- Page 87 and 88: eading material in their own langua
- Page 89 and 90: Kam Children SingThe singing classe
- Page 91 and 92: Thus, the book-fees for a child to
- Page 93 and 94: advisers to the Project since its b
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- Page 97 and 98: they were persuaded of its value (t
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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