Part II.pdf - MTB-MLE Network

and Dong instruction continues throughout primary school, with a hope that this would help children
stay in school through the primary cycle. The preschool programme expanded in 2002 to several
schools. Each year, new Dong curricula is added for the next higher primary school grade in the
pilot project (Cobbey 2003; Geary & Pan 2003; Malone 2003).
UNESCO’s Increasing Role in Asia
Being the main organization in the UN system responsible for education, UNESCO’s stance and
activities in the field of mother-tongue education are important in a regional overview such as this.
Worldwide, UNESCO has been a strong supporter of using mother tongues as the medium of
instruction (e.g. UIE 2003, UNESCO 1953, 2003b).
In the Asia-Pacific region, UNESCO’s role in promoting the use of minority languages in education
has increased dramatically in the past few years. For example, a manual produced to help education
officials implement functional literacy programmes for ethnic minorities (APPEAL 1999) hardly
mentions language. Regional workshops (APPEAL 2001, 2002) were organized after the publication
of the manual. Through these workshops, the acknowledgement of language as a significant factor
in functional literacy seems to have increased, as is evident in the workshop reports. In the first
report, the language issue is raised mainly through the inclusion of a couple of national case studies,
but the second report is already recommending the use of the mother tongue (as part of bilingual
education) as a viable means to achieving functional literacy. Further, a team of invited international
experts has rewritten the 1999 manual. The new manual (UNESCO 2004b) has been published
with the purpose of providing “useful information on best practices and practical strategies for
developing relevant learning materials and effectively organizing literacy classes for minority
communities – using the mother tongue/bilingual approach at the initial stage of teaching
literacy classes and gradually introducing the national language as learning progresses” (APPEAL
2003, 6).
In addition, UNESCO’s APPEAL programme is supporting five Asian countries in their action research
projects on the use of local languages in literacy programmes for ethnic minorities. The countries
involved are Bangladesh, China, India, the Philippines and Thailand. The approach taken by these
pilot projects is fairly similar to other regional initiatives deemed successful. For example, linguists
are employed in the development of appropriate materials in local languages, and local communities
play an active role in curriculum development and materials production. Pilots on NFE are planned
in another four countries, and UNESCO Bangkok is planning to expand its action-research on mother
tongue-based bilingual education also to formal primary level education (APPEAL 2003, 7; 2004,
6-7; D. Riewpituk 2004, pers. comm.). Furthermore, UNESCO has established an advisory group
that will facilitate UNESCO Bangkok’s efforts to develop the UNESCO (2003b) Position Paper
on Multilingual Education into a more practical toolkit relevant to the Asian context. The toolkit
would respond to Asian policy makers’ and education planners’ concerns about mother-tongue and
multi-lingual education, and helping them turn vision into concrete action at the policy level (APPEAL
2004, 7; V. Jensen, pers. comm. 2004; UNESCO Bangkok 2004).
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