Multilingual Education and India

Dear MLE friends, Most of the articles, research papers and newspaper clippings in this list are building a case to support MLE. However, there are also other voices. Some claiming that the tribal people themselves do not want it. Attached is an article making that claim. This brings out an important question: it seems that at this point the academic and NGO world is quite convinced that a multilingual approach will be best for the children on the long run, but have we been able to interact sufficient with the tribal communities themselves on this? Have we been able to find leaders who really represent the voice of the people themselves?

" Dear MLE friends, SEAMEO is the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization . It recently  published a collection of language policies and case studies on mother tongue as bridge language of instruction from the eleven countries in Southeast Asia .  The publication, entitled " Mother tongue as bridge language of instruction: policies and experiences in Southeast Asia " was produced and published in collaboration with the SEAMEO Member Countries. It is stated that the publication is regarded as the most valuable output from the SEAMEO-World Bank Project on Mother Tongue and can be a rich advocacy tool.

Dear MLE friends, Last month the much discussed Right to Education Bill, passed in both Houses of the Parliament. In it many important issues are addressed. In the context of this mailing list the following line is important: (f) medium of instructions shall, as far as practicable, be in child's mother tongue; Of course more significant is the context in which that line is written (see below). One aim of the bill is to make the education in India more child centred . Using the mother tongue is part of that reform.

Dear MLE friends, The Human Rights Council of the United Nations just published a report titled: " Study on lessons learned and challenges to achieve the implementation of the right of indigenous peoples to education ".

Dear MLE friends, Congratulation to Prof Ajit Mohanty and his team: the book with a selection of the JNU MLE conference papers of early 2008 came out. The title is " Multilingual Education For Social Justice " Today in the The Hindu appeared a review. The concluding paragraph reads: " The book resonates with the contemporary Indian scene, where language, particularly as a medium of learning, has become a fiercely contested terrain. The scales are disastrously tilting to suit the elite design of language as tool for domination. The Dalit, indigenous, migrant, poor child, if helped to learn in the medium of its language, will blossom into a strong, confident, creative person, equally participating in building the India of our dreams."