Multilingual Education and India

Producing materials in unofficial local languages can be quite challenging for a government. It is therefore worth noting that recently the education minister of India announced the release of 52 primers in non-scheduled languages. These primers can all be viewed online . We all know that producing materials is one thing, getting them distributed and used in the classrooms is another. But it is good that concrete steps are taken towards the need for encouraging the use of local languages in the classrooms, particularly in the early grades. Recently, the Union Education Minister of India, Dharmendra Pradhan launched and announced 52 textbooks/primers  in non-scheduled languages for early childhood care and education. The primers have been prepared by NCERT and Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru.  By non-scheduled languages we mean languages that are not included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and therefore include smaller languages . The  prim...

Odisha has for years been on the forefront of the multilingual education efforts in India. It is good to note that the government has decided to expand the program. According to this latest news report, the government of Odisha has announced that they will add 200 more teaching posts of Multilingual Education (MLE) in addition to the 200 posts already existing.. They will predominantly focus on working in districts with students from tribal and minority communities.  The government has also increased the number of languages under the promotion of  multilingual education from 10 to 16. The new languages to be included are Ho, Desia, Gadaba, Mundari, Sadri and Bhuyan.  ‘The expansion aligns with the state’s vision to preserve and revive tribal languages, fostering cultural heritage and inclusivity ,’  said secretary-cum-commissioner of the department Roopa Roshan Sahoo.( The Indian Express ) Currently  in Odisha, under the multilingual education programme, childr...

It is at the state level that the National Curriculum Framework really needs to be reshaped. Last month, the government of Maharashtra published  their draft State Curriculum Framework for the foundational stages of education. It is good to see the emphasis on using the mother tongue in the first years of education, but as the document seems to be mainly a copy and paste from the National Curriculum Framework, it needs to be seen how much this framework is really owned by the politicians and implementers. The state Government of Maharashtra introduced, just last month, a new curriculum framework for the foundational stage of education. This State Curriculum Framework (SCF) places emphasis on the use of a child’s mother tongue as the primary medium of instruction in the early years or foundational stages (age 3‒8). The curriculum states that it aims for students to be able to read and write by class 3. According to the Hindustan Times article : “The framework—State Curriculum Fra...

It is always good when things move from talking to action : In Assam new textbooks have been developed and distributed for the early grades that are in line with the New Education Policy. It is good to note that they have been produced in several local languages. Still it would be interesting to learn why certain languages are included while others are  not. According to the ANI Report , the Education Minister of Assam last week officially dispatched vehicles with 87.6 lakh  textbooks in local languages of Assam. The languages included are Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Manipuri, Garo, Hmar, and English for Classes 1 to 3. This initiative comes under the NIPUN Assam Mission for the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) programme from the NEP or New Education Policy with special emphasis on teaching children in their mother tongue so as to promote Multilingual Education.  NIPUN is a flagship scheme under National Education Policy 2020 which seeks to achieve the foundational ...

World Book Day gives us a nice excuse to promote the production of books in the local languages. Particularly since this year there was a special emphasis on indigenous languages! In line with the theme of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-32), f or this year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has chosen the theme  “Indigenous Languages”! According to their official statement , “Indigenous and local languages feature as part of the World Book Capital Network Charter, and the Charter recognizes a less rigid concept of ‘the book'; it also acknowledges all  forms of literature (including oral traditions).” The statement also mentions that, “ Of the almost 7,000 existing languages – many of which are fast disappearing – the majority are spoken by indigenous peoples who represent the greater part of the world's cultural diversity.” Therefore, they are stressing the importance of safeguarding these languages, the mot...

Dear Reader, Congratulations on International Mother Language Day 2023 ! On this day we are thrilled to share with you that the MLE-Inda blog has been updated now with the most current information. You can find much more information on Multilingual Education on our pages dedicated to Multilingual Policies in India , MLE Projects , MLE related resources and books and our latest new page on the Historical Overview of MLE in India . You can also read the latest blog on MLE in Andhra Pradesh for the month of February, 2023.  Please note that this Blog and the  resources mentioned here are a work in progress. Therefore, we invite you to point out any inconsistencies and share any updated information, should you have it. We also accept suggestions if you have any for the blog.  We also request you to share our blog as a resource to anyone who is interested in the cause of Multilingual Education, mother tongue and language related issues. Please feel free to send us informatio...

Andhra Pradesh has a long history of engaging with multilingual education among the tribal groups. It is good to note that the latest initiative not only focuses on material development, but also on the training of teachers. Hopefully this will make the program more sustainable than previous attempts . While reading up on this, I discovered an NGO that I was not aware of: It is good to note what NEG FIRE is engaged with! According to the recent report from the Times of India , ‘teacher training modules’ have been developed for tribal languages of Andhra Pradesh. The Tribal Cultural Research and Training Mission (TCRTM) held a two-day workshop for the same at Rushikonda. Mother-Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) has been implemented in 1,350 schools in the state according to this news report. The languages covered by this include the Koya, Savara, Adivasi Oria, Jatapu, Kuvi, and Konda Dora.  They plan to train 1,400 teachers who are already working in these schools.( TOI ...