“Medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be in child’s mother tongue.” – The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 quoted in “Primary Education of Tribal Children” by Press Information Bureau, Government of India (Ministry of Tribal Affairs, 9 December 2019)
https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1595502
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=16476
A chance discovery of ‘Koyaboli’ or Gondi (dialect) script recently in Adilabad district has opened new vistas in the educational and cultural development of the major primitive Gond tribe in the country besides creating scope for deeper research in Proto-Dravidian languages. The find is so recent that it has yet to gain broader acceptance, but … Read more
Linguapax Asia works in partnership with Linguapax International, a non-governmental organization formerly affiliated with UNESCO and located in Barcelona, Spain. In its role as the Asian associate, Linguapax Asia carries out the objectives of both Linguapax International and UNESCO’s Linguapax Project with a special focus on Asia and the Pacific Rim. These objectives are: Promoting … Read more
At a time when the state is red-faced about rural primary schoolchildren clueless in class, Unicef (Jharkhand) has embarked upon a pioneering project of preparing textbooks in tribal and regional languages for children for whom Hindi is as alien a medium of instruction as English. […] Textbooks include a theme-based pictorial dictionary in tribal and … Read more
Many children speak a home language that differs from the language of instruction in education programs. Research confirms that children learn best in their mother tongue as a prelude to and complement of bilingual and multilingual education. Whether children successfully retain their mother tongue while acquiring additional languages depends on several interacting factors. Studies show … Read more
To read the full article, click here >> Higher education can be used for the social and economic mobility of underprivileged sections. This is achieved usually by providing admission to a set of students from these sections in universities and other institutes of higher education through the reservation or a quota of seats. India has … Read more