Multilingual Education and India

Kumauni & Gharwali taught at schools in Uttarakhand Photo: http://www.shaktihimalaya.com/   The government of Uttarakhand has decided to have the two major vernacular languages of the state, Kumauni and Gharwali, taught at all the primary schools. The article " Grads in Kumaoni, Garhwali may be taken as primary, junior school teachers "  in the Times of India presents it an an employment opportunity, but it seems much more than that.  The article quotes Prof Dr.. S.S. Bisht saying: ""This is very good news for us, as teaching the languages to students from class I will help revive not only the dialects but also their associated cultures," Interestingly now the state is struggling to find enough qualified teachers to implement this: "It will be difficult to meet such a high demand in so short time. However, from this academic year, we have introduced options to study the language as an elective or as a single-subject course to increase the n

Software to build a Community Library   Just making a reading method for children in minortity language communities is not enough. They need books to read, many books! BLOOM software was recently selected as one of the three finalists in an " All Children Reading" software contest . Bloom is a low-tech piece of sofware that helps with making books in any language. The website states: "Bloom dramatically lowers the bar, so that many more people can get involved in building a large collection of local language books. Bloom was designed with new computer users in mind, and it has special features to guide them in simple book making, so people need far less training than alternatives such as Word, Publisher, or In Design." I have heard from several people that BLOOM can handle non-Roman Scripts, but more than that, I learned that their helpdesk is very responsive when you happen to encounter a problem. Bloom has started a Bloom library in which you ca

Conference on Multilingualism and Development   As part of the series of conferences on  Language and Development the Britisch Council is this year organising a conference in Delhi on Multilingualism and Development   The Website of the Britisch Council states: "The Language and Development series is a conference held every two years that explores the role of language in development. It addresses the issues of world, national, second and minority languages and the role they play in economic, social and cultural development; language policy, conflict transformation, language rights and identity; communication, education and development and language pedagogy. The Subthemes

                  

Outlook reports on language issues in Maoist areas