Dr MK Mishra

OPEPA
There is no quality in an education
where every thing is based on a
culture other than ours. Our culture
have a rich reservoir of knowledge ..
We want to share it for the benefit
of human kind.

Ole Henrik Maga ,

President of the UN permanent forum for indigenous
issues,

Patient :

Bab-mian asu dattinj
Consider a situation

Doctor : What is that

Patient : Asu datinj

Doctor : Let me test(
testing)

Patient : kantid (not this )

Doctor : (irritated )Tell
me what happened to you

Patient :(showing his head
) Bab-mianj Asu datinj

Doctor: Oh, I don't
understand what you say.

What do people lose when they give up
speaking their mother tongue with their
children?

Is it important for us to be a linguistically
diverse country with 1,635 MTs vrs 122
languages?

Should we be confined to the state
language ignoring all these ?

Why Hindi lost its importance ?

Is really English necessary for all of us ?

187 languages in India are under threat of
disappearing;

9 are already extinct, according to
UNESCO's e-atlas released in February , 09

Is this not violation of human rights
while linguistic rights are protected both
under the Indian Constitution (Article 29
(1) & Article 350 A)

Mother Tongues endangered due to
government neglect Meher Ali, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, December 09, 2009

“It could be that schooling is
actually leading to language loss
amongst tribal communities as
more people aspire to learn Hindi
or English in schools.”

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/india/Mother-Tongues-
endangered-due-to-government-neglect/Article1-484689.aspx

62 Scheduled Tribes

26 are spoken

Where are the rest of the tribal
languages ?

Why these languages disappeared ?

What are the reasons ?
Does the mainstreaming leads
to linguistic genocide ?

Elwin Commission

Dheber Commission

National Policy of Education -1986

Programme of Action 1992

National Curriculum Framework 2005

Position Paper on SC/ST Education 2007

Right to Education Bill 2009 (MT education)
Did we translate the Commission’s
recommendations in to action ?
If not why ? If yes How ?

Language and culture of the child is
foundation of learning

Content of the curriculum and text book
from the cultural context

provide culturally responsive school and
sensitive teachers

Measurable achievement of children

But what are the barriers in education?


The formal approach, of equality of
treatment in terms of equal access
or equal representation for girls, is
inadequate. Today, there is a need to
adopt a substantive approach,
towards equality of outcome, where
diversity, difference and
disadvantage are taken into
account.(p.6)

education must empower the
tribal girls to overcome the
disadvantages of unequal
socialization
and

enable them to develop their
capabilities of becoming
autonomous and equal
citizens.(p.6)

Children from

Different languages

Different religion

Different ethnic groups

different cultural background

Teachers as authority (on the chair ) and children

in culture of silence (sitting on the ground)

Is the school replicate our inherited colonial mind

set ?
LEARNERS LEARNING TEACHERS TEACHING
DIFFICULTUES DIFFICULTIES
How to teach if the
Language of text book children's language is
Content different

Learning atmosphere
Negative attitude and
behaviour
Threatened self image
Lack of professional
School as a non
skill on addressing
responsive place bilingual classroom
Student ,community school relation

High dropouts

Low achievement

Failure in achieving national goal

Loss of human resource

Increase in social discrimination

Blocking education and literacy

Non participation of community

Violation of children's linguistic
and cultural rights
15
MP, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West
Bengal, AP,Orissa , Maharatsra have
initiated tribal education in DPEP.

But
NO evidence of a successful tribal education
programme found in the country !!!

Top Down Approach -State Political Will

Bottom up approach – school community
linkage

At least ten years of practice to see the
achievement

State policy on education

Indigenous knowledge and literacy skill as
foundation to curriculum, text book, teacher
training development

Academic support to tribal teachers

Focal theme of MDG 2010 is
marginalization where the formal
education has to accommodate
equity first and then to admit the
diverse culture group in to quality
education

Unless every one is not respected ,
no democratic country can get benefit
from school education.

Ensure access , retention by providing
Res/ Non-res schools, teachers , text books,
TLM, MDM , Uniform,

But till date the intellectual side of tribal
education has not yet started in public

.

This include the learning system of
tribal and literacy skills of the
curriculum

a lot of preparation for an equitable
quality education where diversity
,multilingual and multicultural
context, ethnicity , language and
epistemology of the tribal is included
in pedagogy
Here is a
situation
A teacher
understand the
language of the
children
Panasapada
Ps, Keonjhar
Learning in mother tongue ( NCF -05, TRE
09 ) to other tongues

Curriculum based on cultural context

Multiple text books in MT / Oriya /
English

Curriculum based on indigenous
knowledge and values

tribal methods of learning to be adopted
in classroom

Intergenerational learning
1. Learning and teaching as a joint productive
activity
Use instructional group activities in which
students and teacher work together to create a
product or idea.
2. Developing Language and Literacy skill
across the curriculum
Apply literacy strategies and develop language
competence in all subject areas.
3.Connecting lessons to children’s life for a
meaningful learning

Contextualize teaching and curriculum in students'

existing experiences in home, community, and
school.
4. Engaging students with challenging lessons

Maintain challenging standards for student

performance; design activities to advance
understanding to more complex levels.
5.Teaching through conversation than
lecture
Teaching through teacher-student dialogue,

academic, goal-directed,

small-group conversations
(known as instructional conversations),

More children’s activities, less lecture .

 Transformative Teacher Training
1. Sensitization( belief, attitude and knowledge )
2. Content and methods( indigenous and
modern combined)
3. Acquisition of second language skill
4. How to prepare a lesson from the cultural
content (Teacher as researcher)
5. Co curricular activities to improve school
climate
6. school as a community resource center

Research is a means of understanding
the issues and challenges and make
future plan

Documentation of successful
programmes for replication
National Resource support
State Resource Center
Formation of State resource group
Creating a resource group among the tribal
community
Developing academic excellence among the
tribal teachers / RPs for future
leadership
Exposure visit to other countries

Dept. of SC/ ST and Minority Affairs

Dept. of School Education and Literacy

National Institutes( CIIL< NCERT )

Institutions and Individuals / Experts

NGOs/ INGOs



Baseline survey

Linguistic survey and mapping

Strong MIS data in class wise language
speakers ( now in 17 languages )

Language education plan ( school, teachers ,
children, text books, curriculum development,
text book production, teacher training, etc .)

Provision of tribal teachers, text books,

Provision of teacher training

Budget for implementation

Community involvement

Prepn. Of Annual Plan and Budget

Work out month wise activities

Forming monitoring group

Inbuilt assessment in classroom

Monitoring, feedback and follow up action



Ongoing maintenance of
tribal education, culture
and language for fullest
achievement and build
national identity

Thank you