It might not be pleasant for many to learn but the fact is, a dismal four per cent of the rural population in Jharkhand speaks Hindi at home and over 97 per cent of the children speak tribal or regional language at home.
But what is more worrying is the information that 92 per cent of the teachers use Hindi to interact with students in schools. Over 90 per cent of the teachers indicated that they can speak tribal or regional language of that area. But since instruction in mother tongue is not mandatory they chose to instruct in Hindi.
According to Tribal Welfare Commissioner Rajesh Kumar Sharma, this has hugely contributed to the dropout’s (at class one level) rates in the State, which he says is highest in country. This information was revealed in the study of Socio-linguistic Diversity in the State, conducted by the Jharkhand Tribal Welfare Research Institute with UNICEF support. The study covered 216 villages in 72 blocks in all 24 districts in the State. The study was conducted last year.
The report of the research was made public on Monday by l Khiangte, Principal Secretary, Department of Welfare in presence of Rajesh Kumar Sharma, Tribal Welfare Commissioner and Job Zachariah, Chief, UNICEF Jharkhand at Tribal Welfare Research Institute.
Almost all (97%) of the children surveyed said that the text books in schools are in Hindi. Over 78% of the teachers felt that children faced problems in learning because of the language gap of home and school.
Although 96% of the rural people speak tribal or regional languages at home, most of them (90%) can speak Hindi. About half of them (50%) say that they make mistake while communicating in Hindi. The popular language of people in haat-bazar (local markets) is regional or tribal language (67%), but one-third (33%) ofthe respondents use Hindi in market places.
The study recommends that the medium of instruction in anganwadi pre-school centres and primary classes in schools should be in the mother-tongue of children, which is tribal or regional language.
"The study material in tribal and regional language should be developed and used in classrooms to bridge gap between the home language and school language. And the recommendation made in the report should be followed by different departments," Khiangte said.