Posts

118 Books in 95 languages - COVID-19

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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

Sniffles - Who are vulnerable?

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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

[MLE] MLE Certificate Course in India

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Quality Training for teachers and policy makers on the topic of Multilingual Education has always been a challenge. It is therefore good to note that a Certificate Course is under development in collaboration with Guwahati University.

[MLE] Resources from Odisha/Orissa

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Dictionaries in 21 indigenous languages Over the last several weeks the Multilingual Education (MLE) program of the government of Odisha came 3 times to my attention: A presentation from the recent MLE conference in Bangkok, an excellent video clip explaining how the program works in the classroom and the news that 21 dictionaries were published.

[MLE] Conference on MLE, Mobility and Inclusion

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Dr Michel Kenmogne gives a welcome speech at the reception on the first day of the conference. Last week I attended  the “Inclusion, Mobility and Multilingual Education Conference” in Bangkok. This time the MLE conference was done together with the British Council’s recurring conference on Language and Education which resulted in a larger and richer conference with about 450 participants from a broad range of disciplines participating. The topic of “inclusion and mobility” provided a good opportunity to link MLE to the increasing number of issues around migration and identity. At least 30 participants were from India, several of who gave a presentation. For now, we will give a few impressions with links to abstracts. At a later stage, the full presentations will become available.

[MLE] UNICEF report on Early Literacy and Multilingual Education in South Asia

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Final Report “Early Literacy and Multilingual Education in South Asia”  A few months ago UNICEF published the final report on their research on Early Literacy and Multilingual Education in South Asia. The study is based on literature review on early literacy and multilingual education, surveys of students’ literacy achievements in primary grades, analysis of sociolinguistic situations, and policy and programme documents. That 100 page report is worth noting!

[MLE] Draft National Education Policy

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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.