Multilingual Education and India

The Language  and Learning Foundation has conducted India's first-ever language mapping of schools survey in Chhattisgarh: Language Mapping of Schools in Chhattisgarh .  The survey was carried out under the NIPUN Bharat initiative  in collaboration with the Government of Chhattisgarh and UNICEF India. The report  maps the different language situations that are present in each school with the aim to design an effective education strategy and policy. Through this research almost 30,000 schools were surveyed. The focus was on the first grade and the information gathered was mainly through the teachers. The following conclusion was stated in the summary of the report: The survey shows that in about 75% of the schools students are likely to face moderate to severe learning disadvantage due to the difference between their home language and the school language used as the medium of instruction. It also shows that about 95% of students at the time of entry to the primary schools speak a h

  Kalika Bali’s talk on TED.com There is a lot of technology involved in producing educational materials. However, most language technology is focusing on majority languages while the minority languages stay behind. In a recent TED talk, a language technology enthusiast working with Microsoft, Kalika Bali, is talking about how this gap can be bridged.

Ranjitsinh Disale (Photo used with permission from the  Varkey Foundation ) Congratulations to Ranjitsinh Disale on being nominated for a prestigious prize for innovations in girls' education. Good to read that "Disale not only translated the class textbooks into his pupils’ mother tongue, but also embedded them with unique QR codes to give students access to audio poems, video lectures, stories and assignments."

Good to note that more easy-to-read small books on COVID-19 are becoming available in local languages. I noticed one in Gadaba language, spoken in Orissa/India, with local photos and with input from a doctor living in the area. Other available materials were translated via Bloom from international booklets. Good! Still we have a long way to go to get the information out! Regards, Karsten

There is lots of information shared about the prevention of the spread of viruses these days. In terms of vulnerability we usually talk about medical vulnerability. But how about information vulnerability? There are several groups of people that fall into that category. How about those who do not understand the major languages through which the information of the governments and health organizations is distributed? How about kids who have difficulty to make sense out of the adult talks? Sniffles  is a cute kids' book published by Pratham with an appealing story about a girl with a cold who accidentally got her friends sniffing and sneezing. At the end it gives some simple explanation on how the spread of a virus happens and can be prevented. A relevant topic for today! The book has been put on  Storyweaver  and  Bloom , so that it can easily be translated in any other language.  It is already available in Sadri (Devanagri), Kolami, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Englis

Reading is hard work, particularly in a language you hardly know!  (Photo Credit: Business Standard) This month there were plenty of articles in the newspaper talking about language and education because of the publication of the Draft National Education Policy (NEP) which stated: “Three-language formula will need to be implemented in its spirit throughout the country, promoting multilingual communicative abilities for a multilingual country.” Of course, there was the controversy around the promotion of Hindi, but there were also plenty of references to the value of multilingual education.

The Multilingual Reality: Living with Languages Prof Ajit Mohanty recently published a book on multilingual realities and Dr Dhir Jingran was interviewed for a video on multilingual teaching. Both worth taking note of.

Studies suggest that multilingualism has its benefits. (Getty Images) Rather than dichotomizing the teaching of English against in any local language, professor Neeta Inamdar argues that research shows that a simultaneous approach of multiple languages works better.

While browsing in LinkedIn I discovered that this site also contains some interesting articles on multilingual education. The articles tend to be short but can be still of interest. A few relevant ones I will mention below.

Expert panel in debate.  Photo by Natalie Lovenburg While visiting government officials I have often come across the assumption that multilingual education would foster separation movements and therefore violence. Recently a panel called " Linguistic tolerance as a tool for resiliency in multilingual societies against violence and radicalization " addressed this issue. As this is also relevant for India I post the reference here.

Software to build a Community Library   Just making a reading method for children in minortity language communities is not enough. They need books to read, many books! BLOOM software was recently selected as one of the three finalists in an " All Children Reading" software contest . Bloom is a low-tech piece of sofware that helps with making books in any language. The website states: "Bloom dramatically lowers the bar, so that many more people can get involved in building a large collection of local language books. Bloom was designed with new computer users in mind, and it has special features to guide them in simple book making, so people need far less training than alternatives such as Word, Publisher, or In Design." I have heard from several people that BLOOM can handle non-Roman Scripts, but more than that, I learned that their helpdesk is very responsive when you happen to encounter a problem. Bloom has started a Bloom library in which you ca

                                  Nepal reports positive effects from local language classes Only a few months ago the Nepal press reported negatively about the multilingual education programs. But this time is different . The article Start of native language classes ups enrolment states : "According to the District Education Office (DEO), the use of native language has not only proved effective but also helped increase the quality of education." Fun to read that in this Magar community the program has motivated

Dear Multilingual Education friends, As a follow up on the NCERT study National Study on Ten Year School Curriculum Implementation the Times of India published this week an article titled States realize English is what people want . A few quotes It's not just parents across India who are confused about the time and importance to be given to education in English and the vernacular; the latest data from NCERT reveals our education establishment is just as perplexed, with very little uniformity in the way regional languages are treated. Almost 30% states devote [only] six to seven periods a week in Class V for teaching the local language, the study says. English seems to be scoring. Introduced towards the middle of elementary school, it is now offered at the Class I level in 26 states, making it clear that most states have realized that that is what people want. "While they (parents) may kno