MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION: IMPROVING EARLY GRADE LEARNING OUTCOMES THROUGH USE OF MOTHER TONGUE SANGAI SIKAUN SANGAI BADHAUN (LEARNING & GROWING TOGETHER) PROJECT TECHNICAL BRIEF SERIES # 3 ABOUT THE PROJECT (2012-2016) THE CHALLENGE: In the 27 worst-performing schools in Banke and Dang, Nepal, marginalized children in former bonded labor communities had low levels of learning achievement and high dropout rates. THE GOAL: Demonstrate an education model in Nepal that enables marginalized children to com- plete a quality education up to Grade 8. THE SOLUTION: A multi-pronged approach to address the entire education continuum from early childhood to Grade 8 with interventions to The results of the Sangai Sikaun Sanagi Badhaun (Learning & Growing To- improve teaching practice, classroom envi- gether) Project confirm that mother tongue instruction enhances learning. ronment, governance and system support, This brief outlines key strategies and lessons learned related to medium of assessment, and parent and community instruction for marginalized groups. engagement. A recent United States Agency for International Development (USAID) nationwide THE IMPACT: Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) found that 37% of Grade 2 students and 1 Learning outcomes improved at every 19% of Grade 3 students in Nepal could not read a single word. In the project ar- level from Grade 1 to Grade 10 ea, a separate baseline assessment modeled on the EGRA found that 68% of Grade Enrollment in ECD increased to 93% 2 students and 40% of Grade 3 students could not read a single word in Nepali, the Attendance increased at every level. primary language of schooling. Dropout declined from 22% to 3% for Grades 1-8 Why aren’t children learning to read? PARTNERS: One likely cause is that roughly 55% of the population of Nepal speaks a language 2 Implementing Partners: Backwards Society other than Nepali as a first language. In the project communities in Banke and Education (BASE); Rural Women’s Develop- Dang districts, roughly 70% of children speak Tharu as their first language. Research ment Center (RWDC) shows that children learn best when they learn in their mother tongue first. In Ne- Technical Partners: Kathmandu University; pal, efforts to provide quality education to all students will be severely hamstrung National Center for Education Development unless these efforts include support for minority language speakers through moth- (NCED); Rato Bangala Foundation; Seto er-tongue based instruction in the early grades with opportunities to transition to Gurans National Child Development Center Nepali and/or English after literacy skills are developed in the mother tongue. KEY STRATEGIES Before the project, many schools were not even teaching in Nepali (which uses the same script as Tharu and is in the same Key activities included: language family), but rather in English. Parents placed a premi- » Generate buy-in from regional and district-level stakehold- um on English skills, and schools had begun to promote English ers and community leaders through agenda-sharing as the medium of instruction in order to compete for students meetings. with local private schools. Teachers, however, did not have the » Raise awareness of the importance of mother-tongue based strong English skills necessary. The results showed at exam instruction through media campaigns, including billboards time. As for Nepali learning, teachers complained that children and radio ads. would learn letters and words but forget them after two or » Increase visibility of use of Tharu by using it in Early Child- three months, likely a result of over-reliance on rote memoriza- hood Development classes. tion. » Educate parents through classes that covered the im- portance of mother tongue-based learning, among other Unsurprisingly, overall learning achievement in the project area topics. was low, attendance was poor, and dropout rates for Grades 1- » Include mother tongue in Opportunity to Learn frameworks 8 were 23%, well above national and regional rates of 5-6%. for planning and School Improvement Plans (SIP). » Share results of learning assessment with parents. While the project initially focused on quality education more broadly, baseline results indicated a need to home in on the Parents were particularly motivated by evidence. Explaining local Tharu language as a means to achieving the goal of quality how and why mother tongue instruction contributes to overall education. As the project evolved, using children’s mother learning was important. Furthermore, parents appreciated evi- tongue as the initial Medium of Instruction with strong transi- dence of children’s progress, including assessment results and tional support to multi-lingual education increasingly became a tracking against benchmarks created for leveled readers. Many cornerstone strategy. parents became convinced when they could empathize with their children: a turning point for many was when meeting facili- tators switched between Nepali and Tharu languages so that EVIDENCE-BASED ADVOCACY TO GENERATE COM- parents could experience the challenge and reflect on their chil- MUNITY AND PARENT SUPPORT dren’s needs. Previous efforts to convince parents to enroll children in schools BUILD SUPPORTIVE SYSTEMS with minority languages as the medium of instruction have had little success, perhaps in part because many used the mother World Education worked simultaneously to build capacity of tongue exclusively. Instead of promoting the exclusive use of students’ first language (mother tongue), the project accepted the reality that parents wanted their children to master Nepali Progressive Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Approach and English and advocated for a progressive approach to enable Level Use of Tharu Use of Nepali Use of English students to develop literacy in all three languages. ECD Exclusive None None Given that many parents were initially skeptical of the need for Medium of in- Introduction to Grade 1 None mother-tongue based instruction, generating community sup- struction oral language port for the strategy was a critical first step. The project com- municated key messages to parents through a combination of Increased focus on vocabulary mass media, small groups, and one-on-one meetings with par- Medium of in- Introduction to Grade 2 development; ents. struction oral language beginning litera- I always used to think my children had cy to learn in English. Now I understand Transition out of the value of mother tongue instruc- medium of in- Transition into Continued intro- Grade 3 struction; use for medium of in- duction to oral “ tion. I will share this message with clarifying expla- struction language other parents.” nations 1 Sitabkhan, Y. and DeStefano, J., (2014). Education Data for Decision Making (EdData II): Nepal Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) Study. Washington, D.C.: USAID. 2 Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics, 2011. 2 KEY STRATEGIES teachers and the systems supporting them: Resource Persons, for teaching and learning reading skills. principals, School Management Committees (SMC), govern- ment trainers, Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA), the Village Key activities included: Education Committee and local government. » Developed scope and sequence for Tharu linked to curricu- lum and language structure. Key activities included: » Five-day writers workshop engaging parents, teachers, » Train government Resource Persons on mother tongue in- Tharu community leaders and senior students and artists. struction to enable them to provide on-site coaching to The workshop produced reading cards in single color by teachers. grade using local stories and images. » Train principals and School Management Committees » A second five-day workshop revised the scope and sequence (SMCs) on the importance of mother tongue instruction. based on experience and created new decodables and lev- » Advocate for redeployment or hiring of local Tharu-speaking eled readers. teachers for early grades. » Provide support to parents and teachers to develop their » Build capacity of government Education Training Center, own Tharu language teaching-learning materials. Having Resource Teachers and District Education Office to support high quality materials in the Tharu language that parents, mother tongue instruction, enable broader adoption, and teachers and community leaders had helped produce re- ensure sustainability. sulted in great pride in the materials and support for their use. Children were immediately drawn to these materials over books in Nepali and English as they could relate better TEACHER TRAINING & ON-SITE SUPPORT TO EN- to the stories and make more sense of the content. COURAGE MOTHER TONGUE USE Initially, teachers felt more comfortable teaching in Nepali, in part because all government textbooks are in Nepali (or Eng- lish). In order to motivate teachers to adopt a new approach, the project provided support in a variety of ways: » Train ECD facilitators and early grade teachers to use Tharu as the medium of instruction in all subjects, using a pro- SUPPLEMENTARY TEACHING-LEARNING gressive approach depending on level. MATERIALS PACKAGE » Tharu-speaking mentors from the community visit teachers in their classrooms regularly to promote and encourage the use of Tharu as a medium of instruction. THARU TEACHING LEARNING MATERIALS » Promote a sharing culture: In Learning Circles teachers dis- » 46 Picture Word Cards cussed and shared experiences, challenges, and successes » 142 Word Cards related to use of children’s first language as the