Promoting Mother Tongue Education

‘Fifty percent of the world’s out-of-school children live Non-specialists most commonly use ‘mother in communities where the language of schooling is tongue education’ to mean education in a language rarely, if ever, used at home.’ (World Bank, In Their that children speak at home, with the implication Own Language, Education for All, 2005) that education is solely in that language, although this is rarely if ever the case. This is particularly ecisions about the language medium unfortunate because policy makers often mistakenly used in schools affect most minorities believe that education in a home language will mean D and almost all indigenous peoples. It is that children will never really master a national these groups who most commonly speak a language or majority language. But in fact, the opposite is other than the prevailing national or majority one. true (see below.) What we are really talking about As such, minority and indigenous children are most is multilingual education, whereby children start often affected by the absence of education in their school speaking the language that they speak at ‘home’ language, and suffer the most severe conse- home, and other languages are gradually introduced quences; for generations, they are relegated to life over time. For the rest of this chapter I will refer on the margins. Very high numbers of children are to Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education affected. For example, according to the Institute (MTME). for Development Studies in the UK, approximately ‘1.38 billion people speak local languages – languag- Education in MTME is better es that are less well-known, without written forms for children and not used in formal education. This includes an World Bank research from Mali in 2005 showed A positively estimated 221 million school-aged children.’ that, ‘End-of-primary pass rates between 1994 and It seems obvious to say that children learn better 2000 for children who transitioned gradually from when they understand and speak the language of a local language to French were, on average, 32 per plurilingual the classroom. But currently many children around cent higher than for children in French-only pro- the world are taught at school in a language that grammes.’ Policy makers’ most common reaction they do not understand either well or at all. This to a population of children who speak a different has a direct impact, resulting in lower educational language at home (and who are often not doing well world: promoting achievement, higher drop-out rates, loss of heritage in school as a result) is to put in place special pro- languages and lower self-esteem for these children. grammes teaching the national or school language The challenges facing mother tongue education for these children. But research over two decades mother tongue provision include the concentration or disper- has demonstrated that, instead of supplementary sal of minority communities, and the effects of support in the national language, teaching such decentralization on educational decision making. children through their home language and gradu- education These will be discussed here, and the best ways of ally introducing other languages is more effective organizing mother tongue education sketched out, in terms of educational achievement for minority using examples and results from practice around language pupils. Importantly, it also showed that Claire Thomas the world. minority language children progress faster in both Finally, some of the reasons decision makers give their language and the majority language when they for resisting mother tongue education, despite its first receive education in their home language. proven effectiveness, will be examined. Therefore, While all children benefit from education in their the chapter will be most useful for advocacy by home language, UNESCO has found that girls ben- minority and indigenous activists, and those work- efit more. This may be for cultural reasons: girls, in ing to shape educational policies. general, are more restricted to the home. This limits their opportunities to be exposed to and learn other Terminology languages that may be spoken outside the home. In this chapter, a ‘mother tongue’ is a language that Minority girls may participate very little in class children learn from their parents (both mother and because they do not understand the classroom lan- father), siblings, wider family and community, when guage. Teachers may support and challenge boys in they are very young (this includes signed languages this situation because they have higher expectations of used primarily by deaf people and their families). them but may not do so with girls. State of the World’s Minorities A positively 83 and Indigenous Peoples 2009 plurilingual world barrier. Unfortunately, students have struggled. Below: Girls from an indigenous community read to conclude that groups are less likely to mobilize Bilingual teach- Many gave up. outdoors at Ban Pho primary school in Lao Cai around topics like the language of schooling. But The Ministry of Education and Training Province, Vietnam. The UNICEF-supported school this is dangerously short-sighted. Examples show ing heads to (MOET) asked UNICEF and international con- provides education in a safe, child-friendly learning that the closure of minority language schools and sultants for help in developing a flexible bilin- environment and includes classes taught in the universities has been a contributing factor to raised gual programme specific to the Vietnam context. children’s indigenous language. Josh Estey/UNICEF. ethnic tensions and conflict. In Kosovo in the early the front of the Preparation spanned almost two years, including 1990s, the closure of many Albanian language pri- policy decisions on which languages to choose home … [helps] pupils feel secure about their identity. mary and secondary schools and the mass expulsion class in Vietnam for the pilot (H’mong, J’rai and Khmer were They will meet other children like themselves, make of Albanian language students from the university chosen), assessments to pick pilot sites and field friends within their community, engage in cultural certainly was one significant factor in increasing By Karen Emmons visits to suggested schools. activities and, most important of all, gain in self-esteem.’ tensions. This was echoed a decade later in Tetovo, In 2008 the first piloted bilingual kinder- Macedonia; this time, however, partly due to more In a typical Vietnam primary class with eth- garten classes opened their books and played MTME as a tool of conflict prevention effective international interventions, a compromise nic minority students, the Vietnamese teacher games in the three mother tongues. One child The link between assimilationist education policies over an Albanian-language university helped prevent strains to communicate through body language said, ‘I enjoy speaking H’mong with my teacher and low self-esteem, absenteeism and high drop-out widespread ethnic conflict. Other examples that or through classmates who may know both and friends and find it much more fun going rates of children from indigenous and linguistic demonstrate the links between assimilationist policy, the minority language and some Vietnamese. to school.’ Grade 1 classes follow in 2009. minority communities is now widely accepted. Such language provisions and potential conflict include Learning is a sporadic occurrence. Ultimately, 13 kindergarten and 13 grade 1 policies perpetuate a cycle of exclusion and margin- Botswana, China and Nicaragua, as documented in Vietnam’s Constitution and 1991 Universal classes (in three provinces) will be monitored alization that, in turn, can pave the way for mobi- recent MRG reports. Primary Education Law recognize that ethnic until 2014, with materials and teacher training lization of communities along ethnic lines when States that run well-planned and well-implement- minority children have a right to study in their developed up to grade 5. That research will con- tensions are high. ed MTME programmes will, in the long run, reduce mother tongue. With 54 ethnic groups in the tribute to new policies and practices (including Some policy makers may feel that both minority the risk of inter-ethnic conflict. Minority children country, that’s a lot of mother tongues. But a legal framework) to promote the use of ethnic languages and education are relatively soft topics – will do better, will be able to break out of cycles of somewhere along the way, using Vietnamese for minority languages as a means for improving compared, perhaps, to land rights, resource rights or poverty, and intercultural education will build links instruction took precedence as the way to help access, quality and equity of education and other reserved seats in Parliaments. This might lead them between communities. ethnic minority students overcome the language social services. p MTME means lower drop-out rates, MTME means higher self-esteem improved attendance Educational development expert Carol Benson A telling insight from Bangladesh was offered by activist believes that systematic but frequently ignored dif- Mathura Bikash Tripura at the UN Forum. He said: ferences between the language and culture of the school and the learner’s community only succeed in ‘As a whole, net enrolment rate in Bangladesh has been teaching low self-esteem. She goes on to state: increased from 71.2 per cent in 1990 to 86.6 per cent in 2001, with gender parity. But in the Chittagong Hill ‘Bilingual education addresses self-esteem in at least Tracts, only 56.8 per cent of the indigenous children from two ways. First, children are allowed to express their 6–10 years old enrolled in schools, and 60 per cent of the full range of knowledge and experience in a language enrolled children drop out in early primary. This is double in which they are competent. Second, use of the mother the national drop-out rate; the children are turning away tongue in the official context of school demonstrates for not speaking Bangla and they are experiencing educa- that their language and culture is deemed worthy of tion in a totally unfamiliar language.’ (see Box, p.

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