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

advisers to the Project since its beginning in 1999. Additional SIL International staff have also helpedalong the way.The Rongjiang Education Office provided the necessary approval and related support without whichthe Project would not have been possible.The Guizhou Nationalities Research Institute, working under the supervision of the Guizhou NationalityCommission (a government body), released a member of its staff, Mr. Pan Yongrong, to support theresearch.A separate institution, the Guizhou University for Nationalities, where Professor Long Yaohong is on staff,was likewise supportive.Cost of the ProjectThe over-all cost of the 10-year Kam/ Mandarin Bilingual Education Pilot Project will come to approximatelyUS$118,000 (or about $12,000 per year). Most of the expense has been in paying salaries to preschoolteachers and topping-up salaries to the poorly paid “temporary teachers” in the primary school.Impact of the ProjectImpact on Education PolicyProgramme organizers realize that it is still too early for the Kam/ Mandarin Bilingual Education PilotProject to have an impact on education policy in China. The nature of effective bilingual educationprogrammes is that the real impacts are not demonstrated until the learners reach the secondary levels ofthe formal system and display their advanced skills in the national language. The programme organizers,therefore, plan to evaluate the programme participants over a longer period of time. Students leavingthe Zaidang Primary School for secondary education elsewhere will be tracked, and their progressdocumented. Their performances at the secondary level will then be compared with those of Kamstudents who did not participate in the Kam/ Mandarin Bilingual Education Pilot Project. If there is to bean impact on education policy, it should be observable by that point at the latest.Impact on Learner ParticipationThe Kam/ Mandarin Bilingual Education Pilot Project addresses the learning needs of Kam minoritychildren in two basic ways: (1) by beginning and building the children’s education in the Kam language,which they know when they enter the preschool classrooms; and (2) by using learner-centeredinstructional methods that involve the children actively in meaningful learning activities. What is theimpact of this kind of education on the learners? A participant gives her own view:Wu Seip Fanc, Grade 2 StudentI like reading. The stories are great fun. In class, I like being praised for re-telling the stories.Often I see old people from our village go to the market in town to sell vegetables. Theyget cheated because they don’t even know how much money is being discussed. When Igrow older I want to help other children learn to go to school and study well to help themavoid such problems.”[ 86 ]