Mother Tongue-based Literacy Programmes: Case Studies of Good ...

een forced into bonded labor. Culturally, Tharu communities are struggling to preserve their culturaland linguistic traditions, which are rapidly disappearing from the lives of the younger generations.Strategies and Implementation ProcessSelection Process of the Project SitesThe project sites were identified through a baseline survey conducted by World Education in collaborationwith its partner organization - BASE. The eight villages identified and selected for the study were all inTharu communities (5 in Dang and 3 in Deukhuri Valley). The reason behind this was that this project sitehad already benefited from previous literacy programmes like the ‘Girls Access to Education’ and ‘BrighterFuture’ programmes. These programmes were also implemented by BASE with the technical support ofthe World Education as a testing strategy. In this sense, BASE was recognized as an organization workingeffectively for the underprivileged with properly trained and capable staff.After successful implementation of these two literacy programmes, each of the selected communitiesrequested more mother tongue NFE classes. Among them, four communities were selected on the basisof their geographical distribution, response from community people, volume of project work that hadalready been carried out in the community, and relative low impact of the Maoist insurgency for closemonitoring and supervision. The remaining four communities were identified through a consultationprocess with the local people.Needs Assessment and Situational AnalysisTwo approaches were taken to assess the needs of the mother tongue literacy programmes. First,frequent complaints in the Nepali language literacy programmes were collected and analyzed. Thena separate survey was conducted to find out the specific needs of the eight selected communities.The data collected from these two sources was codified, and the need to have mother tongue literacyprogrammes in these communities was identified.OrthographyPrimary education materials are already developed in thirteen languages of Nepal (CRED, 2005 & Chirag,2001). The Tharu language is one of them. This language does not have its own orthography. Rather, ithas been greatly influenced by various Indo – Aryan languages, such as Maithali in the east, Bhojpuri incentral region and Abadhi in western Terai. So it was decided that the Devnagari script would be used forthe Tharu language, as well. In addition, the Tharu language had already been successfully identified as anational language and used in primary level school education (Acharya, ND). Similarly, World Educationand BASE had developed a Tharu language textbook and curriculum ‘Shoshan Se Shikshyaor’ (FromExploitation to Education) based on the needs identified through a survey that was carried out in eightDang district villages.Identification of Learning NeedsThe problems and needs of the Tharu community in Dang district were identified in a participatorymanner before the implementation of the mother-tongue literacy project. Tharu community members,[ 132 ]