Language, A Garbled Lesson for Koraput’s Tribal Children ROBERT BHATRA In Odisha’s Koraput district the tribal population does not speak Oriya, the state language. But schools continue to use Oriya as the medium of instruction. Having attended such schools, the author writes how tribal children struggle to overcome this barrier. And, most often, fail. Keywords: education; india; koraput; language; odisha; tribals Lost in Translation: Students from the Bonda tribe in a Koraput school Source: http://maverickbird.com/20140727/bonda-tribal-truths.bmp I am from Laxmipur village in Koraput district. I (an admixture of Paroja and Oriya language)2 at belong to the Bhottada 1 tribe. We speak Bhatri home, but since both my grandfather and father were government employees I grew up among people who spoke Oriya and Desia (a dialect of 1 Bhottodas are a class of Oriya cultivators and labourers. According to Senapati and Sahu this tribe is the subdivision 2 Demography of Bhottada, Academy of Tribal Language of the great Gond tribe. Bhottadas have a population of and Culture, Orissa (accessed from: 78,649 (2011 Census) in Koraput and they are also found in http://as1.ori.nic.in/atlcdemo/?refid=Tribes&pgid=showtribe&tx Nawarangpur, Kalahandi and Malkangiri districts of Odisha. ttribe=Bhottada) 1 | A p r i l 2015 Research. Analysis. Com mentary. Essay. Oriya) and was thus fluent in both. I had to shift a fundamental right for every child between the many schools, as is common in the villages, till ages of 6 to 14 years. Despite government schools class 10: a primary school up to class 5, to the providing free education to all children and the Middle English Secondary School up to class 7, in existence of School Management Committees the Sanganna High School up to class 8—these (SMC) comprising school staff including elected three were in Laxmipur—after which I moved to members of PTA (Parent Teacher Association). the G.C.D. High School in Rayagada for class 9 Despite private schools admitting at least 25 per and 10. Next I headed to Cuttack and the cent without any fee.6 Ravenshaw College for my graduation and Different reasons, and certainly more than Masters studies. And if it had taken all the support one, have been identified for why the tribal of my family to get to Rayagada and then to children of Koraput continue to remain Cuttack, while many of my schoolmates left their conspicuously absent in the district’s school, education midway, it took even more for me to poverty being primary among them. Sure, many find myself pursuing and completing my MPhil more tribal families, compared to families from and getting accepted as a PhD student in the general categories, are BPL (Below Poverty Delhi University. Line) in Koraput. And this indeed contributes That my father, a retired headmaster, was a towards many more tribal children dropping out teacher who taught in the Tribal Welfare of schools as compared to their peers from the Residential (TRW) schools in Koraput district, general categories. contributed considerably to my educational Having said which, one must seek to opportunities and attainments. I was nurtured in understand why even those tribal children who do an educated environment, with the necessary manage to get into school cannot be retained in guidance to further my educational aspirations. the system for long. A significant reason, in my But for most tribal children from Koraput experience, as will be corroborated by local who do not have these advantages, the journey tribals, is language. Even as SSA seeks to include ends long before they have even completed all children in the country’s classrooms, whatever school. And though the Scheduled Tribes (ST)3 their caste, religion or community, it pays little comprise over 50 per cent the 13 .79 lakh heed to their language. population 4 of this southernmost district of There are about seven major tribes, and some Odisha, the ST literacy rate lags at a meagre 36.35 smaller tribes, that inhabit Koraput.7 They speak per cent, lower than the district’s overall literacy variety of languages: Kuvi (Kondh tribals), Saura rate 49.87 per cent, and also lower than the that (Saura tribals), Gond (Gond tribals), Koya (Koya of the Scheduled Castes (SC) at 52.64 per cent.5 tribals), Gutab (Gadaba tribals), Bonda (Bonda This despite the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan’s (SSA) tribals) and Paroja (Paroja tribals). The Paroja mandate to make free and compulsory education tribe is further classified into seven types based on the language they speak which are, Bonda Paroja, 3 The essential characteristics, first laid down by the Lokur Jhodia Paroja, Dhruva Paroja, Konda Paroja, Committee, for a community to be identified as Scheduled Paeng Paroja, Pengo Paroja and Didayi Paroja.8 Tribes are – indications of primitive traits, distinctive There is little similarity between these tribal culture, shyness of contact with the community at large, geographical isolation and backwardness. http://tribal.nic.in/Content/IntroductionScheduledTribes.aspx 4 Census 2011: Koraput. 6 http://ssa.nic.in/ http://www.census2011.co.in/census/district/422-koraput.html 7 http://orissadiary.com/orissa_profile/tribal/index2.asp. 5 Census 2011: Odisha. 8 Orissa District Gazetteers, Koraput, by R.C.S. Bell, Orissa http://www.stscodisha.gov.in/Population.asp?GL=abt&PL=5 Government Press, Cuttack, 1945. 2 | A p r i l 2015 Research. Analysis. Com mentary. Essay. languages, and they are all completely different My personal experience while growing up in from Oriya (the majority language in Odisha). In Koraput had me witness rampant language fact, no one understands these tribal languages problems in the school that I studied in. For except for the concerned tribe in and instance, a tribal student in his class VI outside Odisha. Inversely, these tribes do not examination, while attempting to answer a history understand Oriya. question — (which the question paper had It is in this context that one must understand instructed be answered in the examinee’s “own the feeling of alienation felt by the tribal children words” (nijo bhasha) — wrote in the tribal language (mostly in the tribal concentrated areas) who are that he spoke at home; the answer was supposed enrolled in Koraput’s schools where the medium to be in the examinee’s “own words” in Oriya. He of instruction is Oriya.9 According to a research scored a zero. undertaken by the Orissa Primary Education Another misunderstanding caused by limited Programme Authority (OPEPA), around 748,000 understanding of Oriya, had a class 6 girl student ST children in classes 1, 2 and 3 encounter a writing about herself as a cow when asked to classroom language other than their mother author an essay on the “Autobiography of a Cow” tongue. 10 Schools use Oriya for teaching and (Gai ro Atmokotha). She too scored zero. communication, which is most often not familiar While interacting with some high school tribal to a tribal child at the pre-primary and primary students in the year 1994, I recall discussing ‘podu levels. These children are therefore unable to fully cultivation’ (Shifting Cultivation). We were comprehend classroom teaching and activities, speaking in Oriya and I remember using words read or understand the texts properly. They recite like slashing, burning, conservation etc. The many things along with their teachers (e.g. in class students did not understand the meaning of most I) without even understanding its meaning. As of these words, though they knew what ‘Podu Mohanty (2000) says, ‘No language is inherently cultivation’ is much better than I did. The irony is deficient or illogical… Disadvantages accumulate that if I had been an examiner testing their to speakers of some languages not because their knowledge of podu cultivation, I would certainly languages are substandard or deficient, but, have failed them. In another instance, while because their exclusion from significant social discussing different parts of a particular flower, I domains, from schools…’11 remember the students identifying the flower and its parts but not knowing the names for these in Oriya. Local experiences and anecdotes apart, there is 9 In Odisha, The District Primary Education Programme assessment showed that most of the ST children little in terms of data, quantitative or qualitative, (particularly those who are in the high tribal concentrated that substantively links language and dropout rate areas), have very less exposure to Odia when they are in Odisha. enrolled in to school. 10 OPEPA documentation: ‘Sustainable Community Based A rare academic effort in this direction is made Multilingual Education Program Strategy’, Orissa, cited in, by Mohanty (2000) where he links the mismatch Soumya Kapoor Mehta, 2011. Including Scheduled Tribes in between mother tongue (MT) and the medium of Orissa’s Development: Barriers and Opportunities, IHD - UNICEF Working Paper Series, No. 9, UNICEF India, p. instruction (MoI) of Koraput’s tribal children as 22. making for a major cause for school 11 Mohanty, Ajit K. (2000). Perpetuating Inequality: The dropouts. 12 The work concludes that this has Disadvantage of language, Minority Mother Tongues and Related Issues. In Mohanty, Ajit K. & Misra, Girishwar (eds). Psychology of Poverty and Disadvantage. New Delhi: 12 Mohanty, Ajit K. (2000). Perpetuating Inequality: The Concept Publishing Company, 104-117. Disadvantage of language, Minority Mother Tongues and 3 | A p r i l 2015 Research. Analysis. Com mentary. Essay. resulted in the marginalisation and exclusion of as a medium of instruction for the tribal children tribals from the mainstream societies and till class 5.15 contributed to their poverty. However, the percentage of educational failure State policies with respect to languages in and dropout among the STs remains very high.