Multilingual Education and India

Dear MLE friends, That the “Right to Education Bill” came in to force last week made several authors publish about it. Since the line on the use of the mother-tongue is rather weak, not too many articles focussed on MLE. Still a few interesting quotes from different places: In a broader article on the act in the Indian Express Madhavi Kapur states the following: “ Then there is the question of learning through the mother tongue. Educators have been crying themselves hoarse about the psychological, emotional and social implications of learning through a foreign language in the first five years of school. The aspirations of the people point clearly in the opposite direction. Everyone wants English for their children for obvious reasons. In enjoining us to “use the mother tongue as far as possible as the medium of instruction” the policy makers seem to be hunting with the hound and running with the hare. The possibilities of bilingualism have been left unexplored. It is time to

Dear MLE friends, That the "Right to Education Bill" came in to force last week made several authors publish about it. Since the line on the use of the mother-tongue is rather weak, not too many articles focussed on MLE. Still a few interesting quotes from different places: In a broader article on the act in the Indian Express Madhavi Kapur states the following: " Then there is the question of learning through the mother tongue. Educators have been crying themselves hoarse about the psychological, emotional and social implications of learning through a foreign language in the first five years of school. The aspirations of the

Dear MLE friends, Yesterday a nice article appeared in the Express Newspaper about the Orissa MLE programme. You can find it at http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Orissa+shows+the+way+in+tribal+pocketse&artid=lE6jZWpifQc%3d&SectionID=mvKkT3vj5ZA%3d&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A%3d&SectionName=nUFeEOBkuKw%3d&SEO%3b (text copied below). A nice encouragement to Dr Mahendra Mishra and his team!

Dear MLE friends, In an article entitled "Stark Lessons in Mother Tongue," the on-line Guardian Weekly draws attention to a joint report published in April 2009 which discusses the difficulties children face when their education is conducted in an unfamiliar language. The Guardian Weekly states: International charities are warning that global efforts to raise education outcomes are being held back by the widespread denial of schooling in children's first languages. Developing countries are unlikely to meet UN targets for improving education because of the widespread marginalization of students' first languages, which results in teaching being delivered in languages that children struggle to understand or to use effectively. This is the stark warning

Dear MLE friends, There is an increased interest in early childhood and MLE. Unesco just published a report about is. Here are the details:   ENHANCING LEARNING OF CHILDREN FROM DIVERSE LANGUAGE BACKGROUNDS: MOTHER TONGUE-BASED BILINGUAL OR MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION IN THE EARLY YEARS. U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Jessica Ball. 2010. The literature review discusses mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual education for children starting in early childhood. The report informs policy-makers of existing research and practices in mother-tongue instruction in early childhood and early primary school