Development of multilingual education to empower tribal minorities

Mark Penny Pamela MacKenzie "Development of educational material in the local languages must also take off at the local level. The communities themselves need to be involved in the process. If the community is not involved, the success of the programme is at stake, and sustainability is questionable." Why does India need multilingual education programmes? Multilingualism is a way of life in India but its complexity generates an enormous challenge for education, particularly in India’s remote tribal regions where the languages spoken are different from the languages used in schools. The education provided is often inappropriate for, and even hostile to indigenous minority groups, “creating a barrier to learning achievement” (Shaeffer, 2003). In order to provide quality education, which takes into consideration the needs of tribal children as learners, it is generally now agreed that the linguistic and cultural heritage must be acknowledged and used (UNESCO 2002). Even though the Constitution of India makes provision for this (1) and the recently published National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCERT, 2005) strongly upholds the need for teaching in the mother tongue and the use of local knowledge in the curriculum, education is generally conducted in the major state languages. Teachers rarely speak the community language, or appreciate the children’s traditional culture and as they are not trained in second language learning methods, children are taught in the state medium of instruction as if they are first language speakers (Seel, 2004). Tribal children, who are not familiar with the language of instruction, or with the dominant culture, are at a disadvantage from the start and the drop out rate in some areas is high (up to 75 per cent). Where members of the tribal community are trained as teachers, the ability to understand both languages can assist in comprehension, but the curriculum is often too “dense” (interview with teachers, Adilibad District, AP, November 2003). Few tribal languages have been scripted, and therefore written literature and curricula have never been developed. Where tribal languages are being used in the curriculum, the content is generally a translation of the state curriculum rather than being based in local culture and knowledge (Jhingran 2004). While it is essential to know the state and national languages, to do so at the exclusion of the mother tongue is not only causal in the demise of tribal languages and cultures, but also creates a crisis in tribal children’s sense of identity and self-worth (UNESCO, 2002; Malone, 2003). There is, however, a growing interest in developing multilingual education programmes (MLE) using tribal languages and local culture, particularly in the initial stages of education, gradually moving to regional and national languages. The recommendation to develop MLE is based on a large body of research, which clearly demonstrates the importance of building a strong educational foundation in a child’s first language if they are to be successful in education in the second and additional languages (UNESCO, 2002; Cummins; Jhingran, 2004; Malone, 2003). It is also well understood that a child learns to read and write more easily and develops a stronger conceptual framework in a familiar language. The skills and knowledge learned in the mother tongue can be transferred as the medium of instruction changes, strengthening the child’s ability and achievement. Developing an MLE programme The paper looks at some of the processes which are required to develop a multilingual education programme, including scripting local languages, developing a spelling system, producing a multilingual curriculum and providing resources such as literature and dictionaries. It looks at the use of new technologies, which can support the work, and at the difficulties, which might be encountered. It makes particular reference to the programme which the Government of Andhra Pradesh began in 2003. Here eight tribal languages were analysed and scripted using the local Telugu script; first and second grade curricula are in the process of being developed and piloted, stories are being gathered for publication and local knowledge is being documented. The team will soon begin to develop a bridging curriculum to state (Telugu) and national languages (English and Hindi). All of the work has been carried out in collaboration with the local communities, the linguistic departments of the Universities, international and local NGOs. While many of the programmes and technologies have been available in Andhra Pradesh, the hindrances to their use include a lack of training and fear of losing control as the programme becomes decentralised. Language and script One of the blessings of being involved in language development in India is the rich heritage of cultures, languages and even writing systems (scripts). One of the curses of computing (using Indic scripts) in this rich and diverse environment was the proliferation of data encoding “standards”. Everyone in ICT has horror stories of software and data incompatibilities – often leading to re-keying existing data. Exchanging Indic language data on computers and across various operating systems that were designed for English was inevitably a nightmare. The advent and worldwide adoption of the Unicode standard has finally levelled the playing field, but we in India still have a lot of work to do to catch up – particularly in the area of regional and minority language software. In spite of all the current awareness in the software industry, there are few who truly understand the huge positive implications of the Unicode standard, and fewer still who are out to exploit the power of the standard for the benefit of the Indian masses. Many of these tribal groups cross state borders and it is possible for the members of one tribal family to be attending schools in different states with different languages used as the medium of instruction. For example, one part of the family living in Andhra Pradesh has to go to a Telugu medium school while the remainder of the family living in Chattisgarh is being educated in Hindi. This causes a division in the family group, and eventually, if nothing is done, the family will be unable to communicate with each other as they lose their heritage language. However, if the mother tongue is used as the medium of instruction in both states, relations will be maintained. Should different scripts be necessary? It is a simple process on the computer (2) to transliterate and the same resources can be provided in Telugu, Devanagiri and Roman scripts. For many of these languages, there are also minor dialectal differences and linguists are currently working on programmes for these languages, which will ease the process of producing materials in the slightly different dialects of one language. Linguists and local language helpers Collaboration between the linguists and local language speakers is essential in developing all aspects of the language – analysis, orthography, curriculum and literature development. It is usually the linguist, however, who has the greater technological knowledge and skill but who is strangely reluctant to pass on these skills, maintaining negative attitudes towards the learning abilities of members of tribal communities. The following example reveals how easy it could be to release the tribal communities to develop their own work if we,“the experts”, would pass on our skills to them. In all the MLE programmes currently being developed in states like Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, and MP, it would be possible to train local tribal people to take on a large proportion of the work, but this is rarely being attempted. Why? Resources The following are the ways in which ICT has supported the work, cutting out much labour intensive work in gathering, recording, storing and using data. Dictionaries On meeting the new Education Secretary in Andhra Pradesh to explain the MLE programme, he said, “Yes, all this is good, but what we really need is dictionaries in these languages.” So I dug into my bag and pulled out the prototype of the Gondi dictionary and handed it to him. He was so excited that he put down his cup of tea, stood up and shook my hand again to congratulate me on the work! (Mark Penny, SIL). The dedication and commitment of linguists in bygone eras was amazing when one considers that compiling, typesetting and publishing such comprehensive works sometimes consumed their whole lifetime. In comparison, such activities are child’s play these days. With free software3 that allows us to store, sort, edit, categorize and manipulate huge databases of information – multi-lingual, multi-script dictionaries are a breeze! After gathering and keying in the data, it is just a matter of a few clicks on the mouse (followed by a few mandatory cups of tea!) to format an entire dictionary and print it out within minutes. Alternatively, a different series of clicks can see the same dictionary in HTML format up on the web for anyone, anywhere to access. Other software4 helps users to create an interactive CD version of the dictionary, which is fully searchable and contains photos, with audio clips of sample sentences as well as video clips. Lexicography is a serious business, and suggesting that even the tribal people can do this work themselves at the grass-roots sounds ludicrous. But it is entirely possible and empowering the communities themselves to take the responsibility for documenting and thereby preserving their own languages is a very important step forward. One of the benefits of ICTs is that we are no longer bound by the very time consuming and expensive publishing process that our predecessors had to contend with - (especially the manual typesetting, and re-typesetting after any changes or corrections are made). So it makes a lot of sense to produce regular revisions and updates to a dictionary as it evolves and grows instead of waiting (indefinitely?) until the product is “perfect”. Why so? The trial copies are primarily for distribution within the language community to raise awareness of the project and to solicit corrections and additions (for it is then that the people can say “we have made this ourselves!”) Perhaps one day we will also have dictionaries that can be updated online, (a Wiktionary) for not only the major Indian languages but also the lesser-known regional and sub-regional languages. Literature Tribal cultures are oral cultures and although they have a rich oral literature, in order to learn to read, a corpus of written literature is required. At the beginning of these programmes there is, of course, nothing and all has to be developed from scratch. Digital recording and computerisation of the data is helpful for a start. Once the story is ready for production, it is again a time consuming procedure having to ensure the pages are all in the correct sequence. A simple Microsoft Word Macro provided a very easy way of producing booklets, with all the pages in their correct sequence, and enabling the booklet to be produced in a number of different formats without the necessity of using complex high-end desktop publishing software. A similar system can be used for what is known as “shell books” where the story is the same but the languages are different. Using the new technologies, the books can be produced using more than one script or language (http://www.shellbook.com/). The future of MLE in India We need the young, highly skilled Indian entrepreneurs who are committed to the preservation and development of the lesser known cultures and languages of their motherland. One’s imagination and time seem to be the only limits when it comes to developing smart applications which could be used across the country to help break down the unnecessary barriers that exist. It does not take a lot of funding and the ideas don’t have to be mind-boggling; sometimes the simpler the idea, the more successful the implementation is. But it does take commitment, and there are risks involved. Development of educational material in the local languages must also take off at the local level. The communities themselves need to be involved in the process. If the community is not involved, the success of the programme is at stake, and sustainability is questionable. Progress will always be hampered by a centralised processing system, which initially can produce, but soon becomes a bottleneck as volumes increase and the momentum, vision and passion are lost. There is certainly a higher cost associated with distributed systems, but the benefits in terms of transparency, local involvement (job creation and raising status) and sustainability make it all worthwhile. Distributed systems, which will empower local communities, with the government taking responsibility, are needed to encourage success! Let us hope that those currently involved in multilingual education programmes in India will have the courage to use the technologies to their fullest extent, to call on all the expertise available, and show a real commitment to the tribal communities and their rich heritage. Endnotes 1 Article 350A: ‘it shall be the endeavour of every State and of every local authority within the State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups.’ 2 One tool to assist with transliteration is the SIL converters package, which is freely available at: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=EncCnvtrs 3 The Field Linguist’s Toolbox is available free of charge from: http://www.sil.org/computing/ catalog/show_software.asp?id=79 4 Lexique Pro is also free of charge and available from: http://www.lexiquepro.com/ References Malone S (2003) Education for Multilingualism and multi-literacy: Linking basic education to life-long learning in minority language communities. Conference on Language Development, Language Revitalisation and Multilingual Education. Bangkok, 6-8 November 2003 Seel A (2004) Language and the Right to Quality Education: An overview of issues in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa States, India, Save the Children Fund, UK Schaeffer S (2003) Language Development and Language Revitalisation: An Educational imperative in Asia. Conference on Language Development, Language Revitalisation and Multilingual Education. Bangkok, 6-8 November 2003 UNESCO Position Paper October 2002, Education in a Multilingual World Authors: Mark Penny is a linguistic computing consultant for SIL International in South Asia and Pamela Mackenzie is an Education consultant with International Network for Development.

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