Developing and Implementing Mother-tongue Education Policy in Minority Speech Communities in Nepal: Issues and Challenges

This paper examines some major issues and challenges in developing and implementing mother-tongue education policy in minority speech communities in Nepal. It also suggests some strategies based on field studies for meeting those challenges. In minority speech communities, constituting more than 55% of total population and speaking around 70 languages, despite attempts made by governmental and non-governmental agencies, multilingual education has not yet become accessible it is mainly due to the lack of operational mechanism in education policy. Till today, thousands of children of non-Nepali speaking communities are compelled to be instructed in Nepali and use the textbooks written in Nepali. This has resulted in class repetition, high dropout and very low quality at primary levels. The case studies made in Western Tamang and Rajbansi have explored a number of challenges as well as some way-outs for effective implementation of mother-tongue education policy in such communities. First and foremost, the roles of mother tongue, Nepali and English have not yet been fully justified. In most of the minority speech communities, there is only sentimental attitude towards their mother tongue. Most of the MLE programmes have been commenced without conducting need assessment (Regmi, 2019). There is a lack of appropriate textbooks and reading materials incorporating local cultures and life crucial knowledge embodied in language. Due to the lack of trained and motivated teachers, programmes so far implemented are also facing the problem of quality maintenance. Thus, a promising and inclusive multilingual education policy should be developed and implemented for maintaining the sustainability of MLE programmes in minority speech communities in Nepal.

Language as contextual factor of an education system: Reading development as a necessity

Language is a contextual factor of an education system as it determines the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT). In order to provide for diversity in South Africa, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, makes provision for 11 official languages and the Language in Education Policy (LiEP) promotes respect for not only these official languages, but languages in general as well as the preservation of cultural diversity by means of multilingualism. Having measures like these in place creates the assumption that different languages are used as LOLT. However, mother tongue education is not fully realised in South Africa. A large percentage of learners’ LOLT is not their home language. This lack of mother tongue education may cause poor reading ability. South Africa’s government and Department of Education (DoE) has certain strategies available to promote reading, however, the feasibility of these strategies is questionable when the poor reading performance of South African learners is taken into account. To find a solution for the above-stated problem, due to the fact that reading plays an important role within an education system, and the integral part it forms in nation-building, we conducted a literature study to identify current national and international reading strategies. In this article we present a synthesis of these strategies, which we refer to as a reading motivation framework, outlining the responsibilities of various social role players.

THE RIGHT TO MOTHER-TONGUE EDUCATION: PRACTICABLE OR NOT?

Mother-tongue and mother-tongue education are recognized worldwide as one of the most efficient ways to function cognitively and socially. This article addresses the role of proper mother-tongue education with an emphasis on the importance of “language” since language is vital to a child’s right to a basic education in all its dimensions. Without mother-tongue education, every child’s right to learn and to become a skilful adult, able to participate independently in society, is at risk. The cumulative effect of the South African Constitution, the National Education Policy Act, the South African Schools Act, several international instruments and a number of ground-breaking cases, as well as the interaction between them on mother-tongue education will be examined. The implementation of certain education models will also be proposed.

TRANSCARPATHIAN EDUCATION THROUGH THE PRISM OF DIALECT ATTITUDE

Most of the pupils who go to school speak the language version they have learned at home and only during the teaching process acquire the standard version of the spoken language. That is why it is extremely important that any negative, unpleasant experience should not be connected to the primary language version, as the only basis, building onwhich, mother tongue teaching can be effective. In our study, based on the data from a repeated questionnaire collection, we would like to illustrate what do the teachers of the Transcarpathian secondary schools with the Hungarian language of instruction think about the non-standard versions and theirs speakers. In 2008, 150 teachers responded to the questions about a language and dialect attitude, and in 2018, the same questionnaire was completed by 100 colleagues online or on paper basis. In the study, we used the SPSS statistical processing program, so it turns out whether there has been a significant change in the perception of dialects in the last 10 years in the studied community. After all, the teaching of Hungarian as a mother tongue was reformed during this period, and the curriculum also gave priority to the issue of mother tongue’ version and communication competence. Based on the partial results of the repeated study, we can state that in the past 10 years the opinion of Transcarpathian teachers of secondary schools with the Hungarian language of instruction has changed in a positive direction.There was a higher proportion of responses suggesting an additive approach mediated by the formal curriculum than in 2008. Nevertheless, the explanatory answers received in addition to the more positive statistics still show a trace of the previous approach: the linguistic and dialectal consciousness of the majority of the respondents is far from definite and confident.There are a number of stereotypes in seemingly benign but rather forgiving writings that take longer to undress.However, it is clear that the reform of mother tongue education has an impact, even a positive one. In order to be even more effective, the mother-tongue education in Transcarpathia must follow this way. Therefore, it is important that teachers who teach in both Ukrainian and minority languages show a definite and objective attitude towards their pupils in addition to/despite the changing mother tongue curricula and inconsistent textbooks that do not meet local needs.

ON THE ROLE OF CREATIVE ACTIVITIES IN MOTHER TONGUE TEXTBOOKS FOR UZBEK CLASSES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT’S THINKING

The article explores conclusions based on the study of primary school textbooks, the role of mother tongue education for uzbek classes in the effectiveness of education, the role of cognitive-pragmatic approach in mother tongue education and its contribution to expand the scope of student’s thinking and creative exercises.