[MLE] MLE Resource Centre in Nepal

Dear MLE friends,

A positive development at our northern neighbour Nepal: The establishment of a Multilingual Education (MLE) Resource Centre in Nepal has begun with the support of UNESCO. The Unesco website states here:

"The MLE documentation centre will: provide necessary academic and research support to optimize multi-pronged engagement in providing quality MLE in Nepal; guidance for planning and implementation of MLE programmes; coordination between different MLE activities providing documentation and information resources; networking of various MLE interest groups, institutions and individuals; and establishing linkages to optimize effective utilization of expertise and materials for MLE programmes."

I found it also encouraging to read the below:

"It is expected that with the support of the MoE, the MLE resource centre at CERID will contribute to developing satellites of MLE resource centres across Nepal."

[MLE] Third issue of the UNESCO Multilingual Education Newsletter

Dear MLE friends,

The third issue of the UNESCO Multilingual Education Newsletter is out. You can find it at: http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=12786

In the issues are MLE related news items and articles from all over the world. In the resource section I found e.g. the following publication:

· Closer to home: how to help schools in low- and middle-income countries respond to children's language needs by Helen Pinnock, Pamela Mackenzie, Elizabeth Pearce and Catherine Young

In the events calender I  e.g. saw

 · 2nd Philippine Conference-Workshop on Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education EFA and MTBMLE 2015 and Beyond, Philippines; 16 - 18 February 2012

[MLE] People's Linguistic Survey of India on the way

Dear MLE friends,

In the press we have read about the progress on the Ganesh Devy's People's Linguistic Survey of India. In a recent article in the GlobalPost titled "India: fight to preserve dying languages" the potential  educational impact of that survey was also mentioned:

"Though various studies have shown that children learn better when taught basic concepts in their mother tongue before attempting to master a second language, India prioritizes just 22 out of the 900-odd languages that Devy seeks to catalogue, and the state's promised free and compulsory education is most often available in fewer still.
“In the Constitution of India, there is a special schedule of languages, which alone receive official support,” said Devy. “When the schedule was created after independence, it had 14 languages. Now it has 22. All the funds for primary, secondary and higher education can go only to these languages.”
Not surprisingly, perhaps, tribal literacy rates lag behind those of the general population, and only about one-fifth of the so-called “Scheduled Tribes” noted by the Indian constitution as historically underprivileged are attending school, according to the latest census.
“If we don't include these languages in our education policy, obviously we are discriminating against them,” said Abbi. “We have a reservation policy [that mandates quotas in jobs and higher education] for the [historically underprivileged] Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. But the reservations are for the tribe, not the language. This is the reason why tribals want to forget their languages.”