Toward Stronger Ecosystems for Multilingual Education: Key Takeaways
Influencing policies needs to happen by forces from below, from the side and from the top. This principle from Benson and Kosonen was put into practice in the India LEAD Community of Practice session last week. Dr. Rabha talks as an activist “from Below” , while Binay Patanayak works a lot with government institutions (“from above’) and NGOs (“from the side”) .They both had a lot of insights to offer!
The LEAD India Community of Practice on Multilingual Education hosted a session titled ‘Toward Stronger Ecosystems for Multilingual Education,’ bringing together two experts to bridge the gap between policy and ground reality. The discussion featured two guest speakers: Dr. Subhash Rabha, a literacy activist turned community leader and presently holding the post of Secretary, All Rabha Students’ Union, who brings extensive experience in community-led mother-tongue pilot programs; and Dr. Binay Pattanayak, a Senior Education Consultant at the World Bank with experience across international organisations (UNICEF and UNESCO). Specialising in multilingual and early childhood education, he works closely with national bodies like NCERT and various State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERT)
During the session, Dr. Subhash Rabha shared key lessons from a mother-tongue education pilot project implemented a decade ago, showing how community-crafted materials like primers, big books, and Total Physical Response workbooks boost young learners' confidence. He explained that a child's home language is their natural starting point for learning, advocating for an approach that pairs whole-language story reading with structured word-building skills. To address practical challenges—such as the lack of trained mother-tongue teachers—he proposed a partnership between Gauhati University's Center for Endangered Languages and Multilingualism and the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council to adopt 10 government schools, train local teachers, and create a working model for other regions to follow.
Dr. Binay Pattanayak built on this by walking through national policies while pointing out where implementation tends to fall short. He highlighted how the National Education Policy 2020 and NCERT have mapped India's language landscape, developing primers in 123 languages alongside CIIL. However, Dr. Pattanayak warned that policies could remain ornamental unless grounded in child-friendly practices and real community involvement. He shared successful local projects—like creating a 20-digit counting system for the Sherdukpen community in Arunachal Pradesh, developing teacher materials in Ol Chiki (for Santhali) in West Bengal, and using the e-Jadui Pitara resource kit—to demonstrate how culturally familiar tools help children thrive.
This session offered valuable, practical lessons for everyone involved in schooling. For teachers and educators, it provided strategies on using a child's native language to make reading and math easier to grasp. For policy makers and specialists, it highlighted that writing policies is only the first step—success depends on well-trained teachers and age-appropriate books.
To join these regular quarterly discussions, share classroom practices, and collaborate with educators across India, you can sign up for the LEAD India MLE Community of Practice at - https://www.leadcommunity.info/
Regards,
Karsten, in collaboration with Upasana Lepcha
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