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Published : 21 Feb 2022, 01:33 AM
Madhu, who has been a resident of Dhaka for about 24 years, says his official tasks do not require anything in his native Kokoborok language. So he is not acquainted with the written dialect at all.
“I studied in Bengali and English, so I have no use of the language outside making a conversation. I didn’t learn reading or writing [Kokoborok]. In fact, there was no written version of the language [when I was learning].
“The current government [has instituted the language]. If it had happened before, I could’ve learned reading. My children are growing up in Dhaka, studying here. The odds of them learning it is even lower.”
According to the 2011 Population and Household Census, 1.1 percent of the country’s population are of small ethnic groups, which is roughly 1.7 million. Most of these people are illiterate, while their native languages have no written form.
A 2010 anthropological study by the International Mother Language Institute estimates that 14 languages of the ethnic groups are dying out.
The 2010 education policy attempted to keep them alive as the government aimed to implement a method to teach native languages at primary levels for all indigenous groups. But little progress was made.
In 2017, the government moved to introduce textbooks in languages of Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Garo and Sadri communities, but no new versions were added in the five years that followed.
According to the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, or NCTB, initially there was a plan to introduce the languages of Santal and Manipuri people, but issues involving writing led it to being shelved
According to the board, as many as 312, 000 books were distributed among students from five ethnic groups this year.
Madhu’s two daughters study in Viqarunnissa Noon School, where they have no opportunity to learn their native language. Madhu, however, is sanguine that if the initiative is implemented properly, it will have a big impact on the development of the indigenous people’s languages.
“The children of our region are now able to study and exercise their own languages. It is a good move. But books on other [indigenous] languages should be published as well.”
However, there are problems with teaching the five languages to students from small ethnic groups. They have little interest in learning them due to a lack of trained teachers, issues with some textbooks and the presence of students from multiple groups in one institution.
Leviyo Partha, a private company executive residing in Habiganj’s Noapara Tea Garden, has graduated but has no idea about the written form of his own language.
“We've no book and are forgetting our own culture. Our language will survive only if the government comes up with books on it. In that case, our children will be able to become educated in it."
Government data says around 40 percent of the ethnic population resides in the Chattogram Hill Tracts, while others live in regions including Rajshahi, Sylhet and Mymensingh.
But the presence of fewer ethnic populations in regions outside Chattogram leaves them with little opportunity to read in their language.
THE CRISIS
Mangtha Marma has been involved in the teaching profession for 39 years. He thinks 30 percent of the small ethnic population have no literacy of their languages. Children from these families suffer from unfamiliarity with their languages as well.
“As we have no proficiency in reading or writing, we can’t regularly teach all the subjects in those languages. So we resort to teaching in Bengali. They will see development if they get an opportunity to learn the languages.
Mangtha, who is the headmaster of Rangamati’s Taitong Para Govermnet Primary School, said the present curriculum also discourages these students from learning.
Their interest declines due to other textbooks being in English and Bengali and private tuition creating pressure. They also choose to discard the extra pressure of learning another language due to realistic future plans, which include jobs.
“If the government include language learning classes two or three times each week, the students will benefit from it. They are making no headway learning the textbooks in their own languages.”
“The students are eager to learn their languages, but putting less emphasis on reading textbooks in their own language has become the primary hurdle.”
Mangtha thinks such issues will end up raising the number of people from small ethnic groups without literacy in their own languages. That, in turn, might eliminate the method of studying in their own languages altogether and create a deeper crisis.
“The students have to be exuberant in the knowledge of their own languages. If this process can be continued pre-primary to the fourth grade, I think the barriers of learning the languages can be overcome.
“They can learn it in the same way they do for English and Bengali.”
Babul Chandra Tripura, the headmaster of Belchuri Hemendra Headman Para Government Primary School in Khagracchari, said it is difficult for these students to reserve time to learn their languages while being under the pump over studying other lessons.
“A class needs to be included in the routine for the language education. Or else, when are we supposed to teach them. The [ethnic language] textbooks span from pre-primary to the third grade. So it is important to reserve small ethnic groups language education separately in these classes.”
Prof Shourav Sikder of Dhaka University’s Department of Linguistics thinks not tailoring the overall curriculum for the teaching of ethnic languages is also responsible for the crisis.
“Textbooks are there, but it won’t matter if the other processes are not implemented in steps. It is crucial to provide students with a guideline. The teachers also have to be trained on how to give lessons.
“But the government hasn’t taken any steps. Most of these teachers can’t read or write in their native languages. They need to be taught that.”
Prof Shourav, who sits on technical committee for devising textbooks on the five languages of small ethnic groups, claims the initiative is not making headway due to bureaucratic complications.
“I’ve repeatedly asked the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education to assemble a cell and involve it with PTI [Primary Teacher’s Training Institute] training at Rangamati, Khagracchari, Bandarban and Mymensingh. But it’s not happening.”
“The authorities begin cramming in January-February every year, and forget all about it as soon as the month of February goes by. Whenever the process reaches the final stages of implementation, a new official arrives to take charge of it.
“Three years have gone by in such manner, yet we haven’t even begun training teachers.”
He said the authorities were advised to make a database of teachers and students of the small ethnic groups in 2013, but it was not done.
“We'll not be able to proceed without a database. The government must appoint people to the primary and mass education ministry who will solely work on [the database]. The main work will be difficult without such a wing or section existing.”
“We're also supposed to run a trial to see whether the books are friendly to the students, whether the teachers will be able to teach from the books or find it difficult. A trial run would've detected the problems, but that hasn't happened.”
“After starting the work in 2013, we got the books in 2017, but could not implement it in 2022. It’s true that the work has stalled since 2020.”
Before making books of other languages, the plan on these five languages should be implemented properly first, Prof Shourav believes.
“NCTB or the government didn't have any idea about it. So we'll move on to the next stage after implementing this one. We'll work on the groups that have resource persons, literature. The Santal language will also be included even though the process is stuck due to problems in its alphabet.”
He said initially the children of the ethnic groups will be taught fully in their mother tongue at the pre-primary level, 30 percent in Bangla in class one, and 50 percent in Bangla and English in class two. “They'll be mainstreamed gradually in this way.”
The researcher thinks the ethnic minorities needs to come forward as well to preserve their mother tongue by practising it. “State alone cannot make everything for everyone.”
“People can practise their mother tongue if they have text books in that language. But if the language becomes extinct, how will there be textbooks?” he wondered.
Public representatives of these groups say that the government is continuing its work to preserve their languages despite the odds.
Chattogram Hill Tracts Affairs Minister Bir Bahadur U Shwe Sing and Khagrachhari MP Kujendra Lal Tripura, a member of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry, are hopeful about rolling out the textbooks in ethnic minority languages 'soon'.
“I'm a Tripura, but I don’t know my language properly. This is a fact. It's becoming difficult to speak my language the same way I speak Bangla,” lamented Kujendra Lal.
“So, we're trying to make textbooks in other languages [than Bangla],” he said.
U Shwe Sing said they are struggling to continue lessons in the five languages of the ethnic minorities because they are hamstrung by a shortage of teachers.
“I myself can only speak my mother tongue, but can’t write in it. We grew up learning Bangla or English. So, it's taking time to get the teachers. The government has printed the books.”
WHAT THE NCTB SAYS
NCTB Chairman Farhadul Islam said the process to publish textbooks in languages of the ethnic minority groups has been postponed due to “conflicts among sub-groups and their indifference”.
When the authorities were working on Monipuri language textbooks, one sub-group demanded their language be prioritised because they are the majority, but the others protested, according to him. “This disagreement forced the work to stop.”
The ethnic minorities are also “indifferent” to their languages, he claimed.
“They didn't take the government initiative well. They think the government must do everything for them and they have no responsibilities. No government initiative will succeed if they don't change this attitude.”
WHAT TEACHERS SAY
Kyahlasai Chowdhury Marma, the headteacher of Shuknachhari Government Primary School in Khagrachhari’s Panchhari Upazila, said they run into problems when a teacher of one ethnic group is appointed to teach the language of another.
“The authorities didn’t make any distinction between who is from which community. For instance, I’m a Marma, yet I was put in charge of a school for the Tripura community,” he explained.
“It’s not causing any issues in my school as I know the other languages along with Marma and two assistant teachers in my school were trained on Tripura language by a local NGO. But other institutions are having problems. The textbooks have arrived and we've students. But many teachers aren’t receiving training. The local training is too brief.”
A trainer of Chakma, Marma and Tripura languages, Kyahlasai said, “Teachers face a lot of difficulties as they don’t have training to teach the languages.
“In many cases, teachers are required to teach in languages other than their own. As they don’t know it, they can’t teach it.”
Students who are able to read in their languages are having no trouble with studying in their native tongues.
“This is a matter of great joy for them. When the children have trouble with their own languages, they read in Bangla. And there are teachers who teach students in their languages at pre-primary levels.”
Comments from State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir Hossain and Secretary to the ministry Aminul Islam Khan for this story were not immediately available.
