The Odisha Adivasi Manch (OAM), a State-level network pressing for a policy on “mother tongue-based multilingual early childhood education for tribal children” on Wednesday urged the State Government to ensure providing teaching and learning materials, trained teachers and infrastructure to strengthen ‘Arunima’, the initiative launched to enable tribal students to acquire a strong foundation for further learning.
OAM advisor Sudhir Kumar Digal said, “On July 31 last year, the then Chief Secretary Bijay Patnaik had directed the OPEPA to prepare study materials in 10 tribal dialects including Munda, Santhali, Kissan, Oraon, Kuvi, Koya, Bonda, Juanga and Saura and, accordingly, the OPEPA prepared an Arunima reference book for early childhood and education care centres.
“Nearly ten months have already elapsed since then. The Government's initiatives are praiseworthy, but what affects the process is the delay in providing books to the concerned centres. Teachers too are yet to be trained and children are not doing mother tongue-based transactions in the centres in the current session,” said OAM State convenor Ido Mandal.
“The initiative could make a significant difference to the lives of 1.4 million tribal children of the State by giving them a strong foundation for further learning,” said Digal.
“We urge the Government to at least begin the process of a teachers’ training programme, besides recruiting teachers from the respective tribal communities, and a culture-relevant pedagogy needs to be designed for tribal children" said Digal.