Towards education in children’s languages in Jharkhand, India

Jharkhand, India, is home to around 20 indigenous languages. People from around 33 indigenous communities use these languages. Around 2010, the state used to experience children’s highest dropout from primary schools in the nation. In the education system there was no clarity about how to address this persistent issue. In 2011, the author set up a research cell titled M-TALL (Mother-Tongue-based Active Language Learning) akhra in the state. The center undertook a socio-linguistic survey which revealed that around 96% children in the state did not speak in Hindi. They communicated in their local indigenous languages at home, playground and market. The study also found out that children failed to understand their teacher and textbooks written in Hindi. Initially the duty bearers did not pay any attention to the findings. The M-TALL akhra researchers continued their exploration and collected a lot of learning resources from each community. They developed bilingual picture dictionaries in 9 indigenous and regional languages for use in children’s early grades. Then M-TALL akhra developed a pre-school education package. In 2016, the state government with help of M-TALL akhra developed culturally sensitive new textbooks in 5 indigenous and 2 regional languages. Using these, the state initiated a mother-tongue-based multilingual education programme in around 1000 schools.