Education in mother tongue ushers in hope for CHT children
Indigenous children at Angkur Pre-School of Kachang in Rangamati.Photo: STAR
Mother tongue-based multi-lingual education (MLE) has ushered in a new hope for the underprivileged indigenous children in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) to get education properly. Under the MLE, both formal and non-formal lessons are being given to the children with their respective mother tongue as well as Bangla in the classrooms. As a result, children who were earlier found uncomfortable and unsuccessful appeared to be more attentive and successful learners in their studies. The method has also instilled confidence in them, especially those who were shy in classes. Save the Children, UK has been implementing the MLE project in partnership with local NGO Jabarang Kalyan Samity in Khagrachhari with a view to improving access to education and providing quality education through mother tongue to three communities -- Chakma, Marma and Tripura. Under the project, 60 pre-primary schools and 10 Community Learning Circle (CLC) have been set up to support over 7,00 children and help them get an education in their mother tongue, sources said. Now the children have started to reap the benefits from the pre-primary schools in the remote hilly backward areas of Khagrachhari. Three indigenous languages -- Chakma, Marma and Kokborok (Tripura) -- are being taught at the schools side by side Bangla and English to develop their talent. The schools start at 7.30am and break up at 10.00am everyday. While visiting a Kokborok (Tripura) pre-primary school at Merung, some 30 kilometres from Khagrachhari town, Priayanka Tripura, a teacher of the school, was seen teaching the children. She was giving lessons to 20 students, half of them were girls. They sang songs and recited rhymes in Kokborok and few stanzas in Bangla. Similar scenario was seen in Nakshaful Pre-primary School (Chakma) in Merung Union at Ward No-2, where Dhanabi Chakma was teaching his pupils in Chakma and Bangla. “I am very delighted that our children can learn in their mother tongue. I think its' a good move and minority communities will be greatly benefited from it,” said Hotendra Lal Tripura, a guardian and also a member of Merung union parishad. MLE programme is also providing language and math skill development support to the indigenous children enrolled in grade-1 and 11 in the government primary schools through the community learning circles. Save the Children is also supporting development and training for MLE in eight languages in three hill districts of Khagrachhari, Rangamati and Bandarban. It also has taken programmes for awareness building and orientation of MLE, training for implementing partners on MLE, formation of eight language committees, orthography workshop with eight language committees to reach a consensus on script, upgrade MLE curriculum and teaching learning materials and teachers guides and training for the staff and teachers. Md Matiur Rahman, programme manager (education) of Save the Children, said the programme is to create an opportunity for the ethnic minority children to get education through their respective languages. “The government could follow our theory in all government primary schools,” he said. He said they have started the programme in Khagrachhari that will be expanded gradually to two other hill districts -- Rangamati and Bandarban.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments