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

Table 2: At-a-Glance Status of MT SchoolsSl. Name of the School Name of the Teacher For ClassStudentsBoys Girls TotalLocation Distircts Supported By01 Agolpur School Ms. Nanda Rani MinjUNESCO,IV 12 13 25 Godagari Upa-zila RajshahiBangkok02 Edolpur School Mr. Swapan Toppa III 17 18 35* Do Do NETZ, Germany03 Agolpur School-2 Mr. Prodip Toppa II 16 12 28* Do Do ASHRAI04 Koromjai School Ms. Bharoti MinjGomostapur, ChapaiII 13 14 27Upa-zilaNowabgonjNETZ, Germany05 Khejurebona School Mr. Nironjan Toppa II 07 18 25 Do Do ‘’06 Gopalpur School Ms. Sumitra RaniMinj II 10 10 20 Panchbibi, JoypurhatNOVIB,07 Uchai Surjapur School Mr. Amal Minj II 14 05 19 Do Do “08 Usti ARP School Ms. Kamini Linda 1 08 22 30 Patnitola Upazila Noagoan SDC09 Kuaram ARP School Ms. Sukurmoni Ekka 1 11 14 25 Patnitola Upazila Do “10Bidirpur ARP School Ms. Shandhya Rani118 10 28Do “Shapahar Upazila11Gurkhi ARP School Ms. Shefali Mardi110 10 20Do “Shapahar Upazila12 Chalkmonohar-pur1Mr. Nitai EkkaARP School13 12 25 Shapahar Upazila Do “Total students 149(49%)158(51%)307ChallengesDuring the course of ARP’s implementation, the research team encountered several challenges. Itwas very important to overcome these challenges successfully; otherwise the project would not havereached its goals and objectives. It’s a matter of great satisfaction that ARP could handle the issues verycarefully and resolve them in order to bring about the Oraon communities’ concerted participation andwork for the development of the language. The challenges were:Language SelectionLanguage selection was an early key problem, as two different languages (Sadri and Kurukh) were bothbeing used by the Oroan people living in different parts of the country. Since language is a very sensitiveissue and is associated with one’s emotion, love and expectation, it was very critical for the ARP researchteam to handle the selection diplomatically.Script SelectionThis was the most challenging task for the ARP research team to deal with because the Oraon peoplehad different and strongly held opinions. Under the circumstances, it was very tough to overcome thedifferences and reach an agreement to work coherently for the development of their own language.ARP successfully resolved the above two critical issues in large part thanks to its Participatory ActionResearch approach. This approach, while time-consuming, insured extensive participation from the[ 50 ]