Multilingual Education and India

Happy International Mother Language Day! Well, if we read the history of this day, the word "happy" is probably inappropriate, as people in Bangladesh lost their lives to fight for their language. It shows the deep value people attribute to their language. Language and identity are closely related. Teaching children in their mother tongue shows acceptance of who they are and provides a basis for further learning. The IMLD(International Mother Language Day) therefore provides us with a good reason to share some powerful resources. The International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on the 21st of February each year. It was approved at the 1999 UNESCO General Conference and has been observed across the globe  since 2000.( UNESCO 2024 ) The theme of this year’s International Mother Language Day celebration 2024 is “ Multilingual education is a pillar of intergenerational learning”.   UNESCO data states that as of now 250 million children and youth don't go to sc

What could be more fun than reading a book authored by someone you know and about a topic you know about? The latest book by Dr. Mahendra Mishra focuses on Multilingual Education (MLE) in Tribal schools in India. I particularly liked the chapter on implementation as I remember so well how Dr. Mishra worked with our SIL colleagues Steve and Vicky Simpson, developing "Community Calendars" and "Theme Webs". It was around 2007 that I visited the project and saw the theme webs on the walls and the tribal teachers enthusiastically developing “big books”. That process is described on page 100 of the book which puts it literally and figuratively at the centre: This book is not just about the language issue in education but particularly shows a passion for the culture and folklore in which the children live and make that part of the teaching, books, and activities. In the concluding paragraph of that chapter Mishra writes "The community took a keen interest in sharing