Multilingual Education and India

Dear MLE friends, Last month the International conference on “ Language, Education and the Millennium Development Goals ” took place. About 400 participants from all over the world were present. High government officials from China and other countries used the conference to learn more about the language issue and my understanding is they are already following this up with action. From India we had Sanjeev  Raj (Save the Children), Ft Mahipal Bhuriya (Adivasi Navotthan Sanstha), Abraham Jose (Nirman) and Dhir Jingran (Room to Read) present (maybe more that I am not aware of). The Unesco website reports ... The three-day forum provided a platform to share ideas and inspire action to increase access to education and development for ethno-linguistic communities by increasing understanding of the linkages between language and achieving the MDGs and EFA; fostering connections among a broad ...

Dear MLE friends, The Calcutta edition of The Telegraph reported last week the start of a Sadri MLE school: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101123/jsp/northeast/story_13210063.jsp     The Adivasi Sahitya Sabha is gearing up to start a unique school where Adivasi students will get the opportunity to study in the popular Adivasi language — Sadri.     ...     “The school will help the students to learn fast and make their classes interesting. Even if the students shift to other languages later, they will face less problems after continuing a few years in their mother tongue,” he said.

Dear MLE friends, Last month Guwahati University, in collaboration with SIL, organised a 10 day MLE workshop-cum-Symposium on Mother Tongue Based MLE. Prof. dr. Jyotiprakash Tamuli reports: “ The content was designed in a systematic order to not only show the background rationale as to why MTB-MLE is needed, but also to demonstrate the various steps which are needed to ensure strong foundations in the mother tongue before transitioning into 2nd and/or 3rd languages. The mornings tended to be presentation/theory-oriented, while the afternoons were given over to practical sessions and/or case studies. Most people used PPTs for their presentations, and included various types of group work within their presentations to ensure maximum involvement by participants.” About 30 people participated from the university as well as DIETs, SCERT, some schools and NGOs. Attached is a ...

Dear MLE friends, After the below language related conference announcement was send out, several of you asked for more details. At that time they were available but now it is. See attached.

Dear MLE friends, Some of you know Cynthia Groff as she did extensive research in India on multilingualism. Her dissertation on " Language, Education, and Empowerment: Voices of Kumauni Young Women in Multilingual India " has now been published on the web: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/115/ .

Dear MLE friends, It is not often that I write something on this list about a personal experience. But I am so enthusiastic about an MLE programme I visited last week as an external evaluator, that I would like to share about it. Two of my assumptions were challenged. 1. NGOs do adult education; governments do primary education. 2. NGOs and government schools are in competition with each other. Doubly wrong! Here was an NGO successfully strengthening the primary schools in the villages by running MLE classes for children. The NGO, Asha Kiran Society, Lamptaput, Orissa, is running MLE classes in 15 villages. I visited 4 villages, observed classes and talked extensively with the village leaders. Sitting under a tree talking with the villagers, I asked them if the teachers of the MLE programme do actually show up. A whole choir of voices responded with an “Of course”. They explained that the MLE teachers even ask permiss...

Dear MLE friends, Question-Answer type of leaflets can be very helpful in interacting with Government officials and NGO leaders. Attached is an A4 size simple 20 point brochure to explain MLE in the Philippines context. Most points also apply to India.