Multilingual education: A new era of education in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has one of the largest primary education systems in the world with 81,434 primary schools in 11 different categories. The government has had some achievement in ensuring better access to basic education. Still, an estimated 17.6 million children, aged 6-10, have never enrolled in primary schools. Socio-economic condition, remoteness and ethnicity put dropout children at odds. Before completing primary education, 46 per cent are appearing in the list of drop-out. However, the dropout rate in marginal and indigenous communities is much higher and the chances of re-enrollment on their part are slim. Distinctively within the CHT (Chittagong Hill Tracts), a particular area targeted by this MLE project, the majority of the population are indigenous ethnic minority groups (religious and linguistic minorities as well). The participation rate in education in case of ethnic minority children is well below national averages. It is estimated that 55.5 per cent of ethnic minority children aged 6-10 years in Bangladesh are not enrolled in school. The dropout rate for ethnic minority children is much higher than the estimated national rate with more than 60 per cent of children dropping out especially in the previous years. Multilingual education agenda are habitually an ingredient of a recognised educational system. Multi-language education incorporates the teaching and learning of multiple languages. It can contain civilising a learner's native language; however, it is universally exercised with regard to second language acquisition, that is, the learning of a foreign or second language. Multilingualism, rather than monolingualism or even bilingualism, is the reality of most language contexts in our world today. For that reason, language programme planners and the communities they correspond, usually yearn for embracing instructive opportunities that will develop into the national language and perhaps even include an international language. Indigenous children cannot get proper education from school because of language barriers. In order to facilitate quality education for the ethnic and tribal children of our country, Save the Children has introduced some innovative measures which made quite an impact on the education sector of Bangladesh. Shishur Khamatayan initiative From the outset, MLE was completely a new experiment in Bangladesh. As multilingual education has been a new concept in the education sector, SC started the total process with community involvement activities. A MLE Education project of Save the Children, 'Shishur Khamatayan', has started operating in the CHT since 2006 after an all-inclusive livelihood assessment of the region. Shishur Khamatayan-Children's Action through Education project has been implemented since September 2006 in three upazilas (covering 6 union parishads) in Khagrachari District (Sadar, Panchari and Dighinala) in partnership with Zabarang Kalyan Samity. The project is being jointly implemented by Save the Children Alliance members in Bangladesh. Accordingly, Save the Children (US) is focusing on pre-primary education and is also providing support on primary education along with Save the Children Sweden (Denmark). As the project is a mother tongue-based MLE (Multi Language Education) programme, it put in a vivid panorama for the ethnic groups. Based on the foundation of oral language, children gradually have begun to read and write in their mother tongue and continued to build up oral mother tongue skills. Ball-rolling with community learning circle Community Learning Circle (CLC) component was introduced in 2008 with a view to supporting the development of language and Mathematics skills of Grade I and Grade II students of primary schools. Under this component an initiative has been taken to help the students of class II and III who are not doing well in studies, which is a perfect example of 'community coaching'. This initiative has been accredited by the community and the students have taken the opportunity to learn under this programme. This programme has also been well supported by the teachers. There are now a total of 20 Community Learning Circles (CLC) functioning with 372 children (212 girls). Children world and sense of ownership Some 150 children groups in total have been formed with 4,174 children (2,172 girls and 868 indigenous children). The groups integrated the children from the schools as well the children from the community who were out of school. They have widened their own action plan by engaging School Management Committee (SMC) and the community leaders for their education and protection. The groups reviewed their action plan in the monthly meetings. Bottlenecks: n There are some bottlenecks regarding the time management of this project. As the training of the teachers and material development was not appropriate, there happened some problems in doing the work as per planning. n People are of the opinion that there are some difficulties regarding the monitoring and evaluation of the project. n Although the technical support team had conducted the field visit on a regular basis, but it was not possible for the senior team members to conduct field vision and coordinate the work frequently. n The amount of reporting that needs to be done for the donors requires a lot of skilled staff. n The specialists of the Alliance were not provided as per demand for the project. The project started with great fanfare and spontaneity. But it was unsuccessful due to lack of support from specialised people of the Alliance n A faction of staffs of this project is not experienced enough to mobilise the community. n Save the Children (Denmark), which was entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring of the project, unfortunately, did not provide any help in relation to training or direction. n Lots of trained staffs have left the organisation in the middle of the project. Recommendation a) We need to estimate the managing cost of the pre-school and at the same time, we need to identify the fundraising sources. A strategy has to be developed to link the pre-schools with the local government in future. b) The training of the teachers through the NGOs has to be ensured at the local level and at the same time a stratagem has to be extended for preparing the teaching and learning materials in future. c) An initiative has to be taken to conduct a study on preparing a blue-print for managing this project in collaboration with the community, NGOs and the local government in future. d) A policy brief can be developed through an action research in 2010 in which the sustainability issue of the project will be properly addressed. e) An integrated community initiative can be taken involving the child rights groups, community members and the local government for promoting the use of solar power. f) A well-coordinated network has to be developed involving the NGOs that have been administering the MLE projects at the local and national level. g) An initiative has to be taken for conducting precise subject based micro-research on MLE project. Concluding remark Whilst the model of MLE is not an up-to-the-minute thing to our country, but from the view of implementation, this project is very significant. The achievement of this project is quite remarkable. Compared with Zabarang, without a doubt, MLE programme has been a success story in reducing the language barrier. That is why, we have to make sure the project is continued for a longer term. Nevertheless, with all that has been achieved so far there is still a long way to go to achieve the project goal. ..................................................... The authors of the abridged version of the article can be reached at: tithefarhana@gmail.com