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

ights and child-centred learning. Monthly refreshers were also arranged to discuss classroom problemsand possible remedial measures for tackling them.The Cambodian programme developed two kinds of materials – a primer and a story track to include theuse of both phonics and whole language methods that would ensure wider community involvementapart from making the learning process more meaningful and interesting to the adult learners. Theprimer track, however, focused on accuracy using the phonics approach. The lessons included textswith controlled vocabulary that was built upon gradually. The students read the text and then answeredcomprehension questions through discussion and writing exercises. The participatory approach gavestudents the opportunity to write stories and adults the chance to share their traditional knowledge.Considering the complex objectives set forth, trained teachers, graduating from the teachers trainingcollege were chosen to pair up with community teachers who had knowledge about the communityand the needs of the participants.In the Kam bilingual programme, children were introduced to the Kam alphabet and to reading andwriting Kam in the formal school. This was done by attaching 2-year preschool classes in the Kamlanguage to the already existing Zaidang primary school programme. The instructional programmeused two tracks similar to the Cambodian feature – a story track and a word-building track – with one 40-minute class for each track. The story-based primers were accompanied by pictures that illustrated thetexts. Another genre of input was that of “listening stories,” intended for reading aloud to the children andwith the children in order to develop their own creative ability in reading and writing stories. Throughthe word-building track, correct ways of combining letters into words, and words into sentences wasdemonstrated. Kam-speaking adults from within the local community who already knew reading andwriting in Kam were selected and trained to teach in the preschools. Besides the Kam language, othersubjects were also taught under the programme. Mandarin was also introduced through oral lessons atthe preschool level to allow for easier bridging later. Many of the children would have otherwise seldomheard Mandarin.The project in India was implemented by the District Literacy Committee of Goalpara district in Assam.The programme involved simultaneously running 70 literacy classes in the Rabha language to impartliteracy skills to all adult illiterates. The Committee engaged 70 volunteer teachers to teach in theseclasses. The curriculum included topics on local environment, culture, promotion of small families,reproductive and child health, and gender equality besides imparting basic literacy skills in Rabha.Writers from the community and language experts from various institutions were involved in designingthe curriculum and preparing learning material. The approach was to introduce words from pictures,rather than beginning with the alphabets. The primers also included contents on Rabha life and culture.The programme was phased in such a manner that the neoliterates who had learnt their mother tonguewere introduced to reading and writing skills in the regional language, Assamese. The volunteer teacherswere given intensive training, and the teacher-learner ratio was maintained at around 1:10, which madelearning more personalized. In this way, the teacher could also monitor the progress of every learner.The project in Nepal looked beyond imparting basic literacy skills in the mother tongue Tharu languageto native adult speakers. For this, an extensive set of literacy materials was designed and prepared withthe help of the local community members. This included translations of material in Nepali produced bythe Ministry of Education. Also, a Tharu literacy primer, a Tharu grammar book, and a dictionary werepublished under the project. The literacy primer in Tharu integrated literacy learning with many issuesthat were considered relevant to the lives of the people, such as sanitation, family planning, and forest[ 19 ]