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Toward Stronger Ecosystems for Multilingual Education: Key Takeaways

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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...
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International Literacy Day - Recent Reports on MLE

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Happy International Literacy Day! Today, as we celebrate the power of reading and learning globally, it is essential to reflect on a fundamental truth: literacy begins with understanding. Over the past year, a wave of good reports and surveys has put Multilingual Education (MLE) front and center in India’s educational discourse. Aligned with the goals of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the NIPUN Bharat Mission, these documents move us past theoretical debates and offer concrete, evidence-based pathways for classroom practice. On International Literacy day we can take a look at the documents published in 2025 and 2026 that demonstrate why language matters in early grade learning—and why these insights are important to India’s mother tongue education and MLE efforts. 1. Bhasha Matters: Mother Tongue and Multilingual Education (UNESCO, UNICEF & British Council) Released in December 2025, this flagship report highlights the critical connection between mother tongue-based i...
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Santhali Storybook written by students reaches the world stage

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Creativity comes so much more naturally when we use our heart languages. Creative writing is part of that, and therefore it is good to note the PALASH initiative (Jharkhand) efforts to get the children to write their own books is bearing fruit: One of their books won an international prize. Let's celebrate with them, but also challenge ourselves as only 1 book from India was chosen, while several other countries had multiple finalists.  In a milestone for indigenous literature and mother-tongue education, a Santhali-language storybook created entirely by schoolgirls from Jharkhand has been selected for the IBBY-UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books for Young Readers in Indigenous and Endangered Languages . Out of hundreds of global entries, this student-led creation now stands among roughly 170 titles representing over 150 indigenous and endangered languages worldwide. Titled "Rimil Aar Chasha Hodo" (The Cloud and the Farmer), the book was authored and illustrated by yo...
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Instructional materials in multilingual literacy

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  © 2026 Karsten van Riezen What if the textbooks we rely on in multilingual literacy are actually holding us back?  As a teacher, I loved my textbooks: They gave me the clarity and structure I needed. But as we see a new, highly diverse multilingual classroom context emerging, it is time to rethink the role of instructional materials? In my recent  article from Linkedin , I explore the new role of instructional materials in literacy classrooms with learners who speak different local languages. I come to the conclusion that we should focus on 3 interventions and then invite you to your comments on those.  Primer-Centric MLE An important component of traditional Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) programs is the development of a primer in the local language. Such primers are often the anchor around which an entire literacy program is built. Typically, it starts by teaching learners the most common sounds and words in that specific language, builds si...
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Chhattisgarh Scales Mother-Tongue Learning Across 9 Bastar Languages

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It is always good when more reading and teaching materials are prepared in local languages.  The Education Department in Chhattisgarh is making progress on that, and that's worth noting.    The Multilingual Education (MLE) initiative in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh has expanded across 6,937 primary schools, reaching over 260,000 children and supported by 7,650 specially trained teachers. The program incorporates nine distinct local languages and regional variants—including Halbi, Bhatri, Dhurvi, Chhattisgarhi, Dorli, Madia, and three variants of Gondi (Kanker, Bastar, and Dantewada)—enabling classrooms to directly reflect the linguistic map of the region. The choice was made to have the textbooks and primers produced in diglot: Hindi on the left side and a local Tribal Language on the right. The materials are printed using the Devanagari script, enabling non-native teachers to easily read and speak the local text.  Aligned directly with the National Educatio...
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