multilingual education in keonjhar juang tribes in orissa
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Social Inclusion of Children in
School, with a Focus on Girls in
Tribal Communities,
through the Multilingual Education(MLE) Initiative in Orissa
Catherine CuadraDebanjana DasNicole GoldsteinSu Hyun KimNivedita Priyadarshini
In collaboration withXavier Institute of Management (XIMB)Bhubaneswar, Orissa
KCCI / 2008 – 01
Design & Printing : Rajdhani Art Press | 98102 45301
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this case study are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily
reflect the policies or the views of UNICEF and the Xavier Institute of Management,
Bhubaneswar, Orissa.
1
Contents
List of Tables, Graphs and Text Boxes 3
Acknowledgements 4
Acronyms & Glossary 5
Foreword 7
Executive Summary 8
Introduction 10
Social exclusion of the Scheduled Tribes 10
Inclusion in education 12
Inclusionary mechanisms under the Indian Constitution 12
Inclusion of STs through education 13
Quality of process and language 13
Connections between language, education, and exclusion of STs 14
Connections between ST girls and marginality 15
MLE as a strategy for social inclusion in Orissa 16
Background 18
Intervention 21
Actors 25
Methodology 27
Objectives 27
Site selection 27
Study sample 29
Data collection methods 28
Research constraints and limitations 31
Presentation of Findings and Analysis 32
Enrolment 33
Dropout rates 35
Absenteesim 36
MLE and the girl child 37
Participation 37
Community responses to MLE 38
Community participation 39
Service delivery 40
Incentives to parents 40
Recruitment 40
Training 42
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Service delivery from functionaries 43
School-based infrastructure 43
Working with community-based organizations 45
Operational sustainability 45
Consolidation 46
Suggestions and Policy Implications 48
General suggestions 48
Specific suggestions 48
Conclusion 50
References 51
Annexures 53
3
List of Tables, Maps, Figures, Graphs, andInserts
Tables
Table 1: Population below poverty line in India: STs 10
Table 2: Population of Orissa 11
Table 3: Key development indicators: India, Orissa, and Keonjhar 19
Table 4: MLE structure from OPEPA 23
Table 5: Block profile (2007) 28
Table 6: Village and school profile (2007) 29
Table 7: Respondents 30
Table 8: Changes in girl child enrolment (2007–2008) 35
Table 9: Summary of findings 47
Maps
Map 1: State of Orissa 11
Figures
Figure 1: MLE educational promotion poster 21
Figure 2: MLE materials in a tribal museum 24
Figure 3: Structure of the MLE network 26
Graphs
Graph 1: Distribution of school enrolment by gender, location, and caste 15
Inserts
Insert 1: Paina Juang: A success story of a dropout girl from Duarsuni village, 36
Banspal block
Insert 2: Abhiram Juang: Learning from his own experience 41
Insert 3: Susmita Juang: Access to higher education denied 45
Acknowledgements
We take this opportunity to thank UNICEF India and the Knowledge Community on Children in
India (KCCI) programme for allowing us to be a part of their team.
We also thank UNICEF Orissa and our supervisor, Professor Peppin, at the Xavier Institute of
Management (XIMB), Bhubaneswar, for their support and guidance throughout the internship.
Further, we would like to acknowledge the contributions of officials from the Orissa Primary
Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) for their assistance in procuring data and for aiding
us during our fieldwork.
And finally, special thanks to the Juang community of Keonjhar district for sharing their
experiences and views with us.
4
List of Acronyms
AT Attitudinal Training
BRC Block Resource Centre
BRCC Block Resource Centre Coordinator
CRC Cluster Resource Centre
CRCC Cluster Resource Centre Coordinator
DIET District Institute of Education and Training
DPC District Project Coordinator
DPEP District Primary Education Programme
ECE Early Childhood Education
FGD Focus Group Discussion
GoI Government of India
KGBV Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya
MCS Model Cluster School
MLE Multilingual Education
MTA Mother Teacher Association
NCF National Curriculum Framework
NFE Non-formal Education
NGO Non-government Organization
NPEGEL National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level
OPEPA Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority
PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal
PTA Parent Teacher Association
SC Scheduled Caste
SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
ST Scheduled Tribe
TLM Teaching Learning Material
UNDAF United Nations Development Assistance Fund
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
VEC Village Education Committee
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Glossary
Gram sabha village meeting
Jati mahasabha community awareness-raising approach to social and economic
problems faced by Scheduled Tribe communities
L1 first (mother tongue) language: Juang
L2 second language: Oriya
L3 third language: English
Panchayat village-level local self-governing body
Rupantar teacher training programme designed to train tribal teachers in Juang
language and education
Srujan village-level awareness-raising programme targeting all community
members on the importance of education
6
7
Foreword
The Knowledge Community on Children in India is a partnership between the Government of
India and UNICEF which aims to fill knowledge gaps and to promote information-sharing on
policies and programmes related to children in India. In 2008, under the aegis of this initiative, 82
graduate students from India and across the world visited and documented projects focused on
child rights and development. Their vibrant perspectives, commitment, and hard work are reflected
in this series of case studies, which are published by UNICEF.
The case studies cover key sectors linked to children and development and address important
policy issues concerning children in India. These include: primary education, reproductive and
child health, water and sanitation, child development and nutrition, social exclusion and village
planning. Based on desk research and field work, these case studies tell the story of innovations
in service delivery, what works, why and under what conditions, and put a human face to the
successes and challenges of development in India.
UNICEF recognises the potential and power of young people as drivers of change and future
leadership across the globe. As such, the KCCI Summer Internship Programme also aims to
develop a cadre of young research and development professionals with an interest, commitment
and skills relating to the promotion and protection of child rights. UNICEF hopes to continue this
collaboration with young researchers, the Government of India, and various research partners,
so as to bring fresh perspectives and energy to development research and our ongoing efforts
towards the fulfilment of the rights of children and women in India.
Karin Hulshof
Representative
UNICEF India
Executive Summary
Under Article 350A, the Indian Constitution guarantees education in the mother tongue for
linguistic minorities, yet a large number of schoolchildren at the primary level continue to be
taught in a foreign language.1 Prior to 2006, access to mother-tongue education had not been
provided in Orissa, which contributed to the lower educational achievements of children from
the Scheduled Tribes (STs), as well as to their low enrolment, high dropout, and absenteeism
rates. In short, ST children were excluded from the school institution because of language.
Moreover, ST communities were locked out of the formal education system because it simply
did not cater to their needs nor give recognition to their culture.
Many studies have also shown that non-mother-tongue education places girl children at a greater
disadvantage than their male counterparts and access to schooling is most limited when schools
expect these girl children to have linguistic resources that do not exist in their environment. Thus
there is a strong link between language and gender injustice.
To address these problems, in 2006, the Government of Orissa along with UNICEF initiated the
Multilingual Education Intervention (MLE) in the tribal-dominated districts of the state. Since
2007, MLE has been introduced in 200 schools, covering ten tribal language groups across eight
districts of Orissa.
To examine the extent to which the MLE intervention is socially inclusive, and to study its
impact on the inclusion of STs in state education, the team surveyed two villages in Keonjhar
district, situated in north-eastern Orissa, where MLE has been operating for a year. The selected
villages are populated solely by the Juang tribe, one of the most populous STs in Keonjhar
district and also one of India’s primitive tribes. The MLE intervention has already developed a
track record of success in these villages, raising hopes that if MLE could be implemented
successfully here, then there is potential for scaling-up in other areas.
The team conducted interviews with various functionaries at the state, district, block, village,
and school levels in order to better understand the intervention. In addition, focus group discussions
(FGDs) were held with Juang children and community members to gain insights into the views
1 Part XVII, Chapter IV: Special Directive, 350A. Facilities for instruction in mother tongue at the primary stage. Itstates: ‘It shall be the endeavour of every state and of every local authority within the state to provide adequatefacilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguisticminority groups; and the President may issue such directions to any state as he considers necessary or proper forsecuring the provision of such facilities.’
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of the intended beneficiaries regarding the intervention, to capture the experiences of MLE-
educated children, and to learn about the processes and practices followed in MLE schools.
The case study demonstrates that the MLE intervention has had a positive affect on enrolment
rates, has led to decreased dropout rates, and has raised community awareness of and
participation in education. Although MLE does not feature a gender dimension, it runs alongside
the National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) and indirectly
raises parents’ awareness of the importance of education for children regardless of gender. The
MLE curriculum has created a new enthusiasm for the school institution as it aims to foster
child-centred learning, as well as providing a place and voice for parents within the school. In
addition, as the curriculum has been developed according to Juang folklore and tradition, MLE
has encouraged the community to take pride in their own culture and values.
Despite the aforementioned successes, many gaps and challenges still remain. A shortage of
qualified tribal teachers, limited MLE funds, poor school infrastructure, and low community
engagement with and involvement in educational issues persist. In considering these shortcomings,
this case study draws attention to some general proposals and some more specific suggestions
with particular reference to the girl child.
9
Introduction
Social exclusion of the Scheduled Tribes
In order to tackle the problem of social exclusion in India, it is important to understand the
processes by which people are excluded. STs are excluded by institutions and behaviour that
reflect, reinforce, and reproduce prevailing social attitudes and values, particularly those of
powerful groups in society. Sometimes this exclusion is open and intentional, such as when state
institutions deliberately discriminate in their laws, policies, and programmes.2 The caste system,
then, should be seen in the light of the above statement. In India, it functions as a form of social
and economic organization based on the principles of hierarchy (graded inequality). Exclusion
has historically served to deny lower-ranked groups in general, and ST and SC groups in particular,
access to economic, political, and cultural resources and social respect.3 Indeed, STs occupy the
lowest rungs in this hierarchy and are one of the most socially deprived and neglected groups in
India. They have historically suffered from exclusion, isolation, and underdevelopment due to
differences in ethnicity, language, social organization, and economic structure. The total ST
population in India is 84,326,240, which is 8.2 per cent of the total population.4 There are 573
STs, of which 75 STs are recognized as ‘primitive’, living in different parts of the country.
Although the ST population is unevenly distributed among the states, nearly 60 per cent of all ST
children of primary school-going age (6–10 years) reside in six states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.5 The latter five states are among the
most disadvantaged states in India measured across most social indicators.6
Table 1: Population below poverty line in India: STs (NSSO, 1999–2000)7
Population below poverty line (%) India STs
Rural areas 27.09 45.86
Urban areas 23.62 34.75
Average 25.8 39.9
2 Department for International Development (DFID) Policy Paper (2005). Reducing Poverty by Tackling SocialExclusion. London, p. 1.
3 Geetha Nambissan, ‘Exclusion, Inclusion and Education: Perspectives and Experiences of Dalit Children’, March2008, p. 4.
4 Census of India, 2001. S.ee also Registrar General and Census Commissioner, 2005.
5 K. Sujatha, ‘Education among Scheduled Tribes’, India Education Report, p. 87.
6 Chapter on Elementary Education (SSA and Girls’ Education) for the Eleventh Five Year Plan, Working GroupReport, p. 31.
7 National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), 1999–2000.
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The general population of Orissa lags behind in human development indicators. But the state’s
ST population lags behind even further. They are excluded by the dominant institutions that
reflect, enforce, and reproduce prevailing social attitudes and values.8 We see that 21.3 per cent
of the state’s population consists of 62 tribes (9.7 per cent of the total tribal population of the
country) which represents 30 different language groups.9 The Juang, one of Orissa’s primitive
tribal groups, face these multiple disadvantages as well as invidious social exclusion in terms of
differences in honour, respect, and esteem.10
Table 2: Population of Orissa11
Total population 36,804,660
ST population 8,145,081
SC population 6,082,063
Percentage of ST population to total population 22.13
Percentage of SC population to total population 16.53
ST communities 62
SC communities 93
Map 1: State of Orissa
8 Naila Kabeer, ‘Social Exclusion and the MDGs: The Challenge of Durable Inequalities in the Asian Context’,Institute of Development Studies. Paper presented at the Asia 2015 Conference, London, 6–7 March 2006.
9 Census of India, 2001.
10 The World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, ‘Social Exclusion and the Gender Gap in Education’, March2008, p. 10.
11 Census of India, 2001.
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The Government of Orissa has begun to tackle the problem of social exclusion. MLE as an
educational intervention represents one such method of promoting socially inclusive policy-
making processes. These processes that tackle the problem of social exclusion include: creating
legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks that promote social inclusion; ensuring that socially
excluded groups like STs benefit from public expenditure as much as other groups; improving
economic opportunities and access to services for STs; promoting political participation by STs
and enhancing their capacity to organize and mobilize themselves; and combating prejudice in
society and changing people’s behaviour and attitude.
Inclusion in education
Participation, local ownership, empowerment, and sustainability are the essential characteristics
of a high-quality process of inclusion.12 Against this socially inclusive framework, both UNICEF
and India–United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2008–2012 have
formulated their policies to support the Government of India’s (GoI) 11th Five Year Plan. The
emphasis is on ‘promoting social, economic and political inclusion for the most disadvantaged,
especially women and girls’.13 A socially inclusive approach will ensure the universal reach of
educational services to STs, promote access to these services, encourage active participation of
STs by offering genuine opportunities to them to raise their voice and exercise their choice, as
well as delivering high-quality non-discriminatory services to them.14
Inclusionary mechanisms under the Indian Constitution
The GoI’s approach to STs draws on provisions of the Indian Constitution that lay down
explicitly the state’s obligation to protect and promote the social, economic, political, and
cultural rights of STs. The Constitution stipulates that ‘the State shall promote with special
care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in
particular of the SCs and the STs, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of
exploitation.’15 Panchsheel, five principles spelt out in 1952 by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first
prime minister of India, have been guiding the administration of tribal affairs in the country. In
short, the principles decree that STs should be allowed to develop in keeping with their own
12 UNICEF, Human Rights Approach to Development Programming, UNICEF, Eastern and Southern Africa RegionalOffice, UNICEF, Nairobi, 2003, pp.1–2.
13 UNDAF, http://intra.un.org.in/undaf/default.htm. The United Nations Country Team developed UNDAF.
14 The definition of social inclusion has been taken from UNICEF.
15 Constitution of India, Directive Principles of State Policy, Article 46. The administrative provisions under theFifth and Sixth Schedules of the Constitution give special powers to the state for the protection and governance oftribal areas, and the reservation provisions ensure due representation of STs and SCs in legislative bodies andgovernment jobs. The ST and SC Development Department is the nodal department of the GoI for the welfare of theST and SC communities. Various programmes have been undertaken for the development of STs in Orissa withassistance from the centre, fund allocation under the state plan, and grants-in-aid received from various agencies.
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traditions. In 1999, GoI formed a Ministry of Tribal Affairs to support tribal development. The
draft National Policy on STs, which was disseminated on 21 July 2006, seeks to integrate them
into social services while preserving their culture.
Inclusion of STs through education
The Eighty-third Constitutional Amendment recognizes education as a fundamental right of all
Indian citizens, and few can doubt the power of basic education in improving conditions for
STs.16 The focus on tribal education through MLE can be seen as part of the wider framework
of GoI’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for the achievement of universal elementary education.
Consequently, around half of the funds designated for STs are spent on educational provision.17
Government measures in the field of education for STs aim to:
• improve educational infrastructure in ST areas;
• increase admission in educational institutions through reservation of seats and other measures;
• provide financial support at various levels of education, including scholarships and fellowships;
• focus on tribal girls’ education.18
In general, the above schemes can be categorized into initiatives that focus on the supply side
(i.e. making schools more accessible, improving quality, or providing a supplementary service
for ST children) and initiatives that focus on the demand side (i.e. by providing incentives for
education).
Quality of process and language
While enrolment and attendance in ST-dominated primary schools has increased under SSA,
little emphasis has been placed on making education more relevant or on encouraging active
learning for STs.19
One of the biggest challenges in achieving the goals of SSA is the fact that the schooling system
continues to reproduce the inequalities of the larger society. One of the principal mechanisms
16 Constitution of India, Eighty-third (Amendment) Act, 2000.
17 Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Annual Report and Ministry of Tribal Affairs Manual, New Delhi,1996. The GoI has acknowledged repeatedly the disadvantaged status of the ST population and the need to addressit. In the finalized Approach Paper to the 11th Five Year Plan, the GoI said: ‘Development and empowerment ofsocially disadvantaged groups is a commitment enshrined in the Constitution, and education is the most effectiveinstrument of social empowerment. Schemes for the educational uplift of the SCs and the STs have borne fruitalthough the gap[s] between the general population and the SCs and STs are still at unacceptable levels’ (PlanningCommission, 2006, p. 64).
18 Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Annual Report and Ministry of Tribal Affairs Manual, New Delhi,1996.
19 Joint Review Mission of the SSA, 2006, ‘In certain groups like SC, ST, the number of out-of-school children isstill high. It is necessary to identify specific contextual aspects[,] including socio-cultural reasons that inhibit theenrolment and the retention of these groups.’
13
through which inequality is reproduced is the language used as the medium of instruction. While
the Constitution of India supports the use of a learner’s mother tongue in education, the number
of languages used as a medium of instruction has declined from 81 in 1970 to 33 in 2005.20 As a
result, the true linguistic repertoire of the Indian population is rarely reflected in the school
system, and large numbers of learners are confronted with either a foreign medium of instruction
or a language variety that does not match their own mother tongue.21
Connections between language, education, and exclusion of STs
The majority of people in any society are invariably speakers of the prestige language used in
education, governance, and other official domains. Meanwhile, the most marginalized STs have
little access to the prestige language; they are speakers of languages that are not even recognized
by formal structures.22 It is not that STs do not want to learn the dominant languages. On the
contrary, they are acutely aware of the economic importance of these languages. However,
learning in the mother tongue has two benefits. First, it facilitates the learning of the most
fundamental concepts by the child. Second, it instils cultural pride in members of the marginalized
community.23
Language and marginality come together to produce an impact on schooling in a number of
ways. In terms of educational access, STs who do not speak the language of the school have
fewer opportunities to communicate with school officials or to understand what is being taught.
If they do get to school, they receive a poor-quality education because both literacy and other
concepts are taught in a foreign language medium that few are able to understand well. This
process is highly inefficient, leading to repetition, failure, and dropping out of school for all but a
few who are somehow able to break the code, that is, learn to read and write in an unfamiliar
language.24 There is inequality of opportunity because those who speak the language of the
school can start learning from the first day of class while all of the others must first learn to
decipher the foreign code. Finally, perpetual subordination may cause learners to have low
aspirations for their own educational achievement and may lead them to participate unwittingly
in a vicious circle of dropping out and educational failure. Thus, in India, children from the
lowest caste groups and from tribal groups trail majority children in school enrolment by about
10 percentage points.25
20 The policy of providing primary education in the child’s mother tongue is also enshrined in the Constitution ofIndia, under Part XVII, Chapter IV, Special Directive, 350A, as well as in the NPE 1986 and the NCF 2005.
21 K. Kosonen, ‘Education in Local Languages: Policy and Practice in Southeast Asia’, in First Languages First:Community-based Literacy. Programmes for Minority Language Contexts in Asia. Bangkok: UNESCO, 2005, p. 5.
22 Carol Benson, ‘Girls’ Educational Equity and Mother Tongue-based Teaching’, UNESCO, 2005, pp. 2–3.
23 Ibid., pp. 3–4.
24 J. Cummins, Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters,2001, p. 59.
25 Census of India, 2001.
14
Connections between ST girls and marginality
Despite a sharp increase in the proportion of girls who enrol in, attend, and complete various
levels of schooling, a gender gap in education persists in India. Moreover, girls from marginalized
groups, such as tribal communities, suffer disproportionately in education relative to the
mainstream population and to boys from their own linguistic or ethnic group. Indeed, these girls
are ‘doubly disadvantaged’. They are disadvantaged as girls, and in addition they are
disadvantaged because they come from impoverished families, or from tribal, ethnic, or linguistic
‘minority’ communities. They are less likely to participate in education and more likely to stay in
school only briefly, if they enrol at all. The exact number of ‘doubly disadvantaged’ girls who are
out of school is elusive, since educational data are rarely disaggregated by both gender and
group identity. Graph 1 shows that the highest-caste girls and boys are about even in the number
of years of schooling, followed by rural males from the majority population. The lowest school
attainment is among rural girls from SCs and STs, followed by rural girls from the majority
group. Rural boys from both groups are more likely to be enrolled across all age groups when
compared to girls. It is only urban girls from the majority population that outpace boys from any
group. However, it should also be appreciated that tribal societies generally hold women in high
regard. Indeed, some commentators observe that ST communities actually accord greater gender
equality to their women than the rest of Indian society as a whole. The issue of ST girls and
marginality is a complex and nuanced one.*
Graph 1: Distribution of school enrolment by gender, location, and caste
The lowest school attainment is among rural girls from SCs and STs.
* See Robert D. King, Nehru and the Language of Politics of India, Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1997 and tape recordings of oral interviews conducted with Dr Mahendra Mishra.
15
India, therefore, still lacks good-quality educational opportunities for all students. Indeed, improving
and diversifying the supply of educational opportunities for excluded ST children is a government
policy. This entails expanding schooling options for reaching marginalized children and improving
the quality of schools that serve marginalized groups. However, policies that appear to be fair on
the surface may be subtly biased against girls from excluded ST groups. For example, policies
that require lessons in school to be taught in a majority language may have greater effects on
girls than on boys. Carol Benson has looked at differences between attainment rates of boys
and girls through bilingual education in South-east Asia. She found that girls who learn in a
familiar language are more likely to stay in school longer and to achieve better academic results
than their peers who do not receive education in the mother tongue.26
MLE as a strategy for social inclusion in Orissa
MLE is just one method by which socially inclusive services can be delivered to ST community
members. While many measures for promoting inclusion incur costs, in some cases these are
minimal and they can often be reduced by taking account of the needs of excluded groups from
the beginning of the planning process. Thinking about inclusion from the outset enables schools
to implement inclusive educational programmes, thus bringing long-term benefits to the
community. Better access to good-quality education for ST children makes them more likely to
find decent jobs and thus contribute to economic growth. Tackling the problem of social exclusion
can also save public expenditure in the long term, for example, by averting social strife and
combating the long-term effects of poverty.
If it is to be successful, any educational development activity targeting ST communities needs to
be relevant and firmly located in their tribal context. There is also a need for interventions to be
gradual and staggered, so that the mainstreaming or external change agents can converge with
the traditional rhythm of ST communities and correspond with their views of development and
empowerment.27 The challenge lies in identifying the crucial activities, practices, and cultural
patterns of the ST communities that can absorb and develop interventions on their own terms.
The MLE intervention in Orissa fosters both learning in the tribal mother tongue and also represents
a curriculum that resonates with the lives of the tribal communities.28 The MLE schools aim to
be inclusive of the needs and demands of the ST communities they serve. Public policy on
inclusive development must necessarily provide for substantive space for STs to be able to
26 Carol Benson, ‘Girls’ Educational Equity and Mother Tongue-based Teaching’, UNESCO, 2005, pp. 3–5.
27 The World Bank Study, Social Assessment Including Social Inclusion: A Study in Selected Districts of Bihar,Phase II, 2008, p. 17.
28 In an essay in 1937, Nehru wrote that a living language is a throbbing, vital thing, ever changing, ever growing andmirroring the people who speak and write it. And our great provincial languages are no dialects or vernaculars, as theignorant sometimes call them. They are ancient languages with a rich inheritance, each spoken by many millions ofpeople, each tied up inextricably with the life and culture and ideas of the masses as well as the upper classes. It isaxiomatic that the masses can only grow educationally and culturally through the medium of their own language.
16
express and assert their aspirations and cultural traditions, and at the same time use their skills
and talents to help achieve their expressed hopes and demands.29 It would be instructive to
mention at this point that the research question decided by UNICEF asked the team to focus on
the girl child. However, MLE’s mandate was never intended to exclusively address the situation
of the tribal girl child. In this way, the direction of the case study and the aim of the intervention
were perhaps misaligned. Nevertheless, the team tried to consider the role of MLE on the social
inclusion of girl children and of the tribal community as a whole.
On a practical level, MLE for ST communities also enables learners to build a strong educational
foundation in their first language (L1), to build a bridge to additional languages (L2, L3, etc.)
successfully, and to continue learning in both/all languages, at least through primary school.
29 Interview with Dr Mahendra Kumar Mishra, OPEPA.
17
Background
Orissa has a population of 36,706,920, half of which lives below the poverty line. Many of the 62
tribes form part of this deprived group.30 The sizeable population of STs in the state assumes
significance in terms of both socio-economic and political processes defining the context of
developmental interventions. The history of vulnerability and prolonged marginalization of the
STs, along with their present socio-economic conditions in terms of work participation, education,
and health, pre-empt their inclusion and targeting in all developmental activities undertaken by
the state. To gain a clear understanding of the poor socio-economic status of STs in Orissa, a
comparative analysis of STs with the state averages of various social indicators is presented
here. Orissa’s STs perform worse in terms of all social indicators. The overall literacy rate in
Orissa is 64 per cent, whereas the tribal literacy rate is only 37 per cent. The overall female
literacy rate is 51 per cent, whereas the literacy rate among tribal females is only 23 per cent.31
While there are currently 1,193,658 ST children attending primary school, the dropout rate of
tribal children is 51 per cent and 69 per cent at the primary and upper primary levels respectively.
The dropout rate of tribal girls in some districts is even higher at 85 per cent.32 Moreover,
according to OPEPA’s research, around 748,000 ST children in Classes 1, 2, and 3 encounter a
classroom language other than their mother tongue, highlighting the institutional barriers faced
by ST children in accessing education.33
30 Census of India, 2001 and the National Human Development Report, 2001.
31 Census of India, 2001.
32 OPEPA documentation: ‘Sustainable Community Based Multilingual Education Programme Strategy’, Orissa,India.
33 According to OPEPA, 11,749 schools in Orissa have at least 20+ children with linguistic diversity and 5,900schools are tribal dominated.
18
Table 3: Key development indicators: India, Orissa,34 and Keonjhar35
INDICATORS India Orissa Keonjhar
Poverty 26.1 47.2 61.92
Percentage living below the poverty line
Infant Mortality Rate 63 87 117
Number of babies per 1,000 live births who die before age one
School Attendance 82.3 79.1 70.2
Percentage of children aged 6–10 years attending school
Girl Child Attendance 78.6 74.0 60
Percentage of girl children aged 6–10 years attending school
Literacy 65 63 59
Percentage of population over 7 years who are literate
Girl Child Literacy 54 51 46.2
Percentage of girl children over 7 years who are literate
STs in Keonjhar
Keonjhar district, located in north-eastern Orissa, is home to 46 STs.36 The district is located
more than 300 km from the state capital, Bhubaneswar. Mining and rice cultivation form the
backbone of the district’s economy. Keonjhar has a poor road network, and poverty levels are
high.37 The district’s conditions pose great challenges to the successful implementation of
educational interventions, thus making it an opportune site for consideration. If the MLE initiative
can be successfully implemented in such a challenging environment, there is potential for easy
scaling-up in less demanding areas.
34 UNICEF, Mapping India’s Children, UNICEF in Action, 2004, pp. 62–63.
35 Orissa Human Development Report, 2004. The estimates were made by the International Institute of PopulationSciences (IIPS).
36 Census of India, 2001.
37 Census of India, 2001.
19
The Juang of Keonjhar
The 30,000-strong Juang community comprises the largest ST in Keonjhar. The district
is known as Juang Country, attesting to the historically widespread presence of the
tribe in the area.38 ‘Juang’ means ‘man’. The Juang believe that ‘man’ emerged from the
earth at the same place where the Keonjhar river of Baitarani emerged.39Their
understanding of ‘man’ centres on the notion of man as part of the community. The
Juang are recognized as one of India’s indigenous tribes whose tradition and culture
need protection. The main emphasis in Juang traditional education is not so much on
the learning of individual skills but rather on the acquisition of the ability to cooperate
closely among themselves for the well-being of the community.40
The Juang are mostly concentrated in Banspal, Harichandanpur, and Telkoi blocks. They speak
Juang, but have incorporated some Oriya words into their language. The Juang practise shifting
cultivation and forestry. The influence of the landscape forms the foundation of their lifestyle in
general and their religious festivals in particular. For instance, Pusha Purnima symbolizes the
beginning of the agricultural cycle, Akhaya Trutiya is the ceremonial sowing of paddy, and
Asarhi marks the beginning of seed-planting and weeding. All these occasions are marked by
singing and dancing.
The Juang are divided into clans, and marrying within the same clan is forbidden. The Juang
women take part in agricultural activities, animal husbandry, collection of fuel, fetching of water,
and other economic activities. They control the family expenditure and play an active role in the
marketplace. The main organizing principle of Juang society is the kinship system. The traditional
political organization of the tribes follows a hierarchical order, with the leader at the apex and
the family at the bottom, based on lineage and village of origin. Since the introduction of the
statutory Panchayati Raj system, the traditional tribal political organizations are gradually
becoming less central, but are still considered important socio-cultural institutions. The mechanism
for decentralized governance, the Panchayati Raj Inistitutions Act, was introduced in the 1990s.
For STs, the relevant legislation was the Panchayat [Extension to the Scheduled Areas] Act of
1996. As a result, traditional gram sabhas (village assemblies) in the tribal areas are granted
special powers to manage local affairs. The aim is to ensure the effective participation of the
Juang in their own development while preserving their traditional rights over natural resources.41
38 See Keonjhar district website, http://kendujhar.nic.in
39 Census of India, 2001.
40 R. Nyak, The Juangs: A Handbook for Development, 1993, p. 115.
41 The World Bank Study, Integrated Social and Environmental Assessment Study: Tribal Inclusion and DevelopmentAssessment and Tribal Development Plan, 2007, p. 11.
20
Intervention
The MLE intervention started simply as an Orissa state intervention, separate from the decision
making of the central government. An MLE intervention in Andhra Pradesh already had shown
promising results, and the Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) was keen
on adopting a similar model. After the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF) was adopted,
OPEPA decided to specifically target ST communities in the state.42
OPEPA in coordination with its MLE (district) tribal coordinators formed a research team to
manage the MLE intervention for 200 different schools in Orissa, representing ten tribal language
groups across eight districts. In Keonjhar district, ten Juang schools were selected for MLE at
the end of 2006.
The ten MLE schools in Keonjhar district were chosen because of their solely monolingual
situation, serving only ST children from a single-language group. This step was meant to ensure
the transition from the tribal language in Class 1 to Oriya in Class 5 as the medium of instruction.
The state and district offices began preparations for the OPEPA project in January 2006,
undertaking the following schedule of activities:
• Awareness was created among the Juang community about the importance and value of a
mother-tongue education programme. In 2006, 3,000 image-based posters were disseminated
in the Juang-populated villages to create awareness.
Figure 1: MLE educational promotion poster
42 NCF 2005 states, ‘The community may have questions about the inclusion/exclusion of particular knowledge andexperiences in the school curriculum. The school must be prepared to engage with communities to listen to theirconcerns and to persuade them to see the educational value of such decisions.’
21
One of the 3,000 posters promoting education of the girl child
Kanchlan alebi pathre eka, nuna ninja mana teka
Girls also deserve education like boys, and they can also keep the fame of the village
• From the initial interest that was sparked by dissemination of posters, a small group of
volunteers in Alang and Duarsuni were given training in resource development. They then
rapidly produced and preserved collections of traditional stories, songs, and other literature.
• The community was informed about and involved in all stages of curriculum development.
• International MLE experts on primary education were consulted. They reviewed the
education materials, stimulating more ideas on curriculum development.
• Local storytellers from the Juang community were engaged in developing reading materials.
• The most commonly used Juang words as well as examples of Juang social practices were
collected.
• The developed materials were field tested, and MLE resource persons from the Juang
community were appointed to seek the opinions of their fellow community members. It is
singular
• Language mapping to identify the schools for implementing MLE was undertaken.
• Teachers for the pilot schools were recruited from the Juang community.
• Teachers and resource persons from the Juang community formed a group of writers and
received training in material production.
• Each MLE school was given an introductory allowance of Rs 10,000 for the instalment of a
tribal museum, which would house hand-made musical instruments, traditional Juang jewellery,
and hunting weapons.
• Teacher training workshops were held for the selected tribal teachers in the summer of
2007 over a period of 15 days.
• Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and Mother Teacher Associations (MTAs), consisting
of the parents of the pilot school students, were formed and made responsible for the
general supervision of the schools and for participating in research activities.
• MLE was introduced in Class 1 in 2007 and then in Class 2 from the beginning of 2008.
• The MLE intervention will be scaled up across Orissa in 500 schools representing 16 tribal
languages over the current academic year, 2008–2009.
The MLE curriculum and instructional materials are innovative and are located within the context
of the lives of the tribal communities. The academic year is divided into three terms, and each
term represents one season (summer, rainy, and winter). Each term is further divided into ten
cultural themes, with one theme for each week. Each theme relates to the Juang landscape and
cultural practices. The MLE curriculum makes use of a ‘big book’ for each theme taught in the
classroom and a ‘small book’ for each theme for individual learning.
22
L1 for some
subjects; L2
for most
subjects with
the help of L1
Develop oral
and written
texts in L2
Develop oral
and writing
skills in L3
Continue
developing oral
and written L1
Continue oral
L2 and then
transfer to L2
in reading and
writing
L1 for most
subjects; L2
for other
subjects, with
instruction in
L1
Develop oral
and written L2
Introduce oral
L3 as a subject
Use L1 for
some subjects;
L2 for other
subjects with
help from L1
for maths
Oral and
written L2
Introduce
written L3
43 Juang uses the Oriya script.
23
The MLE curriculum aims to develop both oral and written language skills among the Juang and
to introduce Oriya gradually in Class 2.43 English is introduced from Class 3 onwards. However,
it is essential that the first language (Juang) continues to be taught throughout the period of
schooling, and that the second language (Oriya) is introduced gradually before it becomes a
language of instruction. The basic principle behind MLE is that learning begins with and continues
through something that the learners already know, that is, their mother tongue.
Table 4: MLE structure from OPEPA
Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5
L1 Develop oral
and written L1
L2 Introduce oral
L2 in second
half of the year.
Start building
oral skills in L2
L3
Figure 2: MLE materials in a tribal museum
The Srujan and Rupantar programmes run alongside the MLE intervention in order to support
it.
Srujan is an awareness-raising programme at the village level, targeting all community
members— teachers and students, parents and children, the young and the old—with a message
about the importance of education. Srujan works to encourage interaction between the school
and the community by holding storytelling festivals, arts and crafts exhibitions, and dance and
music festivals at the school. The programme aims to reduce the dropout rate and to ensure
regular attendance of already enrolled children.44
Rupantar is a tribal teacher training programme aimed at inculcating the Juang language, tradition,
and values in teachers. Tribal teachers attend a four-day training session, followed by a five-day
44 OPEPA documentation: ‘Final Report of the Workshop on the Training of Tribal Teachers’.
24
second-language-acquisition training programme. Rupantar also incorporates elements of
Attitudinal Training (AT) so that teachers can develop more confidence and pride in their own
tribal identity.
The function or purpose of MLE is community-based education enabling STs to obtain full
control over their educational system and making schooling relevant to their lives.
Actors
OPEPA
This is the government office that is the main implementer of the MLE intervention; it also
provides administrative support. Dr Mahendra Mishra runs the state Tribal Education Department
and liaises with the MLE coordinators at the district level.
UNICEF
The UNICEF Orissa office provides support for the MLE intervention at a consultancy level.
UNICEF covers the expenses of international MLE experts who have been involved in the
design of the learning materials. However, funding is not granted specifically for the MLE
intervention.
DPC
The District Project Coordinator (DPC) is responsible for the implementation of all district-level
educational programmes, including MLE. He visits the schools in the district every quarter.
MLE Coordinator
The coordinator is responsible for overseeing the MLE intervention at the district level in each
designated MLE school. The chief tasks of the coordinator are: selecting schools for the MLE
intervention; organizing meetings at the district, block, and cluster levels; monitoring the
intervention; and reporting the process to the state level.
BRCC and CRCC
The Block Resource Centre Coordinator (BRCC) and the Cluster Resource Centre Coordinator
(CRCC) are employees of OPEPA and are responsible for the monitoring of the primary schools
at each level. The BRCC visits the schools twice a month, and the CRCC once a week, in order
to examine the intervention.
VEC
The Village Education Committee (VEC) is a working group of local community members that
monitors the adequacy of the state educational provision.
25
MLE Volunteer and Resource Person
MLE volunteers were appointed in the early stages of the intervention to assist OPEPA in
raising awareness about MLE. MLE resource persons assisted in the development of the MLE
curriculum. Many of these actors were later appointed MLE class teachers. They come from
the local community, and therefore share the same language and culture as the Juang students.
On being appointed teachers, they underwent a 15-day MLE training and a four-day Rupantar
training.
PTA and MTA
PTA and MTA are parent-led organizations that discuss children’s educational progress and
school service delivery. PTA meetings are held every month, and MTA meetings are held every
three months. Both PTA and MTA meetings are held in the school buildings.
Figure 3: Structure of the MLE network
Resource Group from State
office OPEPA and UNICEF
District Project Coordinators
(DPC)
MLE Coordinator
Block Resource Center
Coordinators (BRCC)
Village Education
Committee (VEC)
Cluster Resource Center
Coordinators (CRCC)
Parent Teacher
Association (PTA)
MLE Volunteers/
Teachers
26
Methodology
Key question
In what ways is MLE a socially inclusive intervention for the Juang ST population?
Objectives
1. To understand the influence of MLE on the social inclusion of Juang tribal children, with a
particular focus on the girl children
a. Enrolment
b. Dropout rate
c. Absenteeism
2. To study the level of community participation in the MLE framework of social inclusion
a. Parent participation
b. Community responses
c. Community participation
3. To understand the process of service delivery
a. Incentives
b. Recruitment
c. Training
d. Monitoring by functionaries
Site selection
Keonjhar district was chosen as the research site for the team. The decision was made on the
advice of OPEPA implementers because the MLE intervention has achieved the most promising
start here, despite the district’s deprived status in Orissa. Keonjhar is classified by OPEPA as a
Category I district because more than 30 per cent of its population is tribal, which justifies the
need for more concerted interventions. Dr Mahendra Mishra explained that Keonjhar had a
particularly effective MLE coordinator who had already developed extremely strong links with
the Juang community. Thus the MLE coordinator would be able to liaise on behalf of the team.
The team decided to conduct a ten-day field study in June 2008 in Banspal and Harichandanpur
blocks. This decision was made for the team as these are the only two blocks where MLE has
been implemented in Keonjhar district. There are ten MLE schools in these blocks, five in each.
We chose to visit two out of the ten schools, one in each block. The team (after discussions with
27
OPEPA) chose to visit the schools in Alang and Duarsuni villages because both these village
schools are exclusively Juang. The team felt that it was sufficient to visit only 20 per cent of the
MLE schools in order to conduct an in-depth research study of each community; there were
many stakeholders in each village to interview, not only school officials. In addition, a non-MLE
school in Panasnasa village in Banspal block was visited and people there were interviewed to
learn about the challenges faced by children and parents in areas where MLE has not been
implemented.
Of course, the team was mindful that by visiting only two schools, the sample size would be
relatively small. However, fieldwork was only possible over a ten-day period. This was due to a
number of reasons. The UNICEF Orissa state office felt that the poor weather conditions in
southern Orissa would make it extremely difficult to visit other MLE schools in Nayagarh.
Safety concerns were also considered. Moreover, it was felt that if the team were split into two
groups, with one visiting a northern district and the other visiting a southern district, superficial
fieldwork might result. Only two schools were chosen, on the advice of Dr Mahendra Mishra, to
gain a thorough insight into the MLE process in the classroom as well as to focus exclusively on
Juang schools so as to be able to make a comparative analysis of the two schools. The team also
felt that greater OPEPA staff and resources would be necessary if more than two schools were
to be visited. At the time of fieldwork, the OPEPA staff were on strike, protesting over newly
implemented contracts. Given these various reasons, it was extremely difficult to organize the
basic logistics for the fieldwork in just Keonjhar.
Table 5: Block profile (2007)45
Block Banspal Harichandanpur
ST population 66,829 66,080
Tribal concentration 79.5% 54.38%
Number of schools 156 181
Total enrolment 14,481 19,254
Total out of school 3,261 2,319
ST enrolment 11,074 6,212
ST out of school 2,553 1,600
45 Information provided by the DPC’s office.
28
Table 6: Village and school profile (2007)46
Village Duarsuni Alang Panasnasa
Name of block Banspal Harichandanpur Banspal
Total number of households 102 75 146
in village
Total population in village 472 335 572
Male Female Male Female Male Female
239 233 162 173 285 287
Percentage of tribal population 93.9 100 92.5
Average household size 5.0 4.0 3.9
Number of literates 109 165 31
Male Female Male Female Male Female
81 28 97 68 28 3
Literacy rate 23.1 49.3 5.4
School MLE School I MLE School II Non-MLE School
Number of classrooms 3 2 2
in school
Number of teachers 3 3 2
(including (including
MLE teacher) MLE teacher)
Number of students in Class 1 24 10 8
Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls
11 13 8 2 4 4
Study sample
Data collection methods
A variety of methods were employed during the fieldwork. The process began by conducting a
series of semi-structured interviews and discussions with Dr Mahendra Mishra, visiting Orissa’s
Tribal Institute, and attending a workshop on Orissa’s tribal population. In the field, video recordings
were made by the team to capture the school and village settings.
Fieldwork was conducted using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methodologies. These
techniques comprised assessing the community’s perceptions of MLE and determining how
MLE has affected the villagers’ experience of the school institution. The need to assess personal
perceptions as well as to explore the links between language and exclusion from social services
defined the research as qualitative. Quantitative data were provided by the DPC and collected
46 Information provided by the DPC’s office in Keonjhar district. The Census of India (2001) was also consulted.
29
from school attendance registers. Additional data about the functioning of MLE schools, training
of tribal teachers, school curriculum, and MLE teaching materials were obtained from the DPC’s
office. Since MLE has been running for only one year, it was impossible for the team to collect
historical data and analyse the long-term impact of the intervention. Hence, this case study is
based mainly on qualitative data. In any event, the team felt that the status of the notion of
‘inclusion’ could be ascertained effectively through respondents’ perceptions and feelings.
Table 7: Respondents
Village Respondent Tool Used
MLE School I 1 BRCC and 1 CRCC Semi-structured and
Duarsuni, Banspal 1 headmaster and 1 MLE teacher One-on-one interview
1 case study interviewee One-on-one interview
24 PTA members FGD
15 MTA members FGD
24 MLE pupils47 FGD
MLE School II 1 BRCC and 1 CRCC Semi-structured and
Alang, 1 headmaster and 1 MLE teacher One-on-one interview
Harichandanpur 1 case study interviewee One-on-one interview
1 community leader One-on-one interview
33 MTA members FGD
42 community members FGD
10 MLE pupils FGD
Non-MLE School 1 non-MLE teacher Semi-structured and
Panasnasa, Banspal 1 headmaster One-on-one interview
1 CRCC and 1 BRCC One-on-one interview
Other 1 OPEPA official Semi-structured and
1 DPC One-on-one interview
1 MLE coordinator One-on-one interview
1 local NGO employee One-on-one interview
1 consultant One-on-one interview
Parents and members of MTA and PTA groups were interviewed through FGDs. The interviews
with parents were carried out in the school, and this helped the team to speak to respondents
within the service context. This also allowed the team to observe how respondents viewed the
school environment. Parents’ attendance at the FGDs gave some indication of their participation
47 The sample consisted of 34 Juang pupils from the two MLE schools. The average age of the children was sevenyears. The youngest child was five years old, and the oldest was nine. In terms of students’ families, all the motherswere rice cultivators and the majority of the fathers earned a living from forestry.
30
in MLE-related activities such as PTA or MTA. External influences that could result in biases in
the FGD setting were avoided. Thus, women were interviewed separately from men as it was
understood that the presence of males (fathers) could influence the credibility of women’s
(mothers’) perceptions.
It was difficult to carry out FGDs among children as their attention span was limited and their
concentration lapsed quickly. Nevertheless, short FGDs were conducted in the classroom setting.
Children’s participation in the classroom was also observed. For the purpose of the case study,
selected students along with their parents were interviewed in depth if the circumstances of
their situation provided additional information on the intervention.
An interview schedule and a questionnaire checklist as further research tools were designed
prior to the field research. The questions were tailored for each group of respondents on the
basis of their role in the MLE intervention.
Research constraints and limitations
• Time was one of the biggest limitations to the research. Ten days of fieldwork were insufficient
for conducting a thorough analysis of the MLE intervention. Because of the limited time
available, only two out of ten MLE schools in Keonjhar district were visited, which represents
20 per cent of all sites. In addition, the team could only visit each school for two days, which
was not sufficient time for conducting in-depth research.
• Another major limitation was that of language as most interviewee responses had to be
translated from Juang into Oriya, and then into English. The team was fortunate to have a
native Oriya speaker to help them in the field and utilized the translation skills of the OPEPA
representative. Of course, nuances of speech were lost in the interview and translation
processes, and the team did not know if a question had been openly framed to allow the
interviewee to answer with as much flexibility as possible.
• As the MLE intervention was introduced only a year before as a pilot programme in 200
schools in Orissa, historical data and existing literature are limited. Consequently, gaining a
sense of the impact of MLE and the changes it has brought about in the villages proved
difficult.
• The team’s visits coincided with the harvest season, and hence people were busy. This
made it difficult to meet with all members of each village.
• Finally, the presence of OPEPA staff and the DPC may have influenced respondents to
answer questions in socially desirable ways.
31
Presentation of Findings and Analyses
Situation: Social Exclusion of the Juangs
The Alang and Duarsuni villages are exclusively Juang areas. In general, the Juang in both the
villages stated that they were satisfied with the educational services they were receiving from
the government. However, the notion of government services is still a remote concept. The
visibly poor levels of health of many Juangs were evidence of harsh living conditions and low
socio-economic indicators.48
Few can afford medicine to treat even the most basic illnesses. In Alang village, the team met
a six-year-old boy, Dasuru, whose neck was scarred by lesions of glandular tuberculosis. His
father said that he took the child to see a doctor near the centre of Keonjhar, but the treatment
did not work.
Alang appeared to be the poorer of the two villages. Rice is the only grain cultivated and eaten
here. In contrast, in Duarsuni, sugar cane, rice, and potatoes are grown. Alang is situated about
60 km from the centre of Keonjhar, while Duarsuni is located about 30 km away. The extremely
poor condition of roads in the area means that services are less accessible and the Alang
community is more isolated.49 Alang residents are served by a polluted lake where all cleaning
and bathing takes place. Community life in both villages centres around a clutch of mud-and-
thatch houses surrounded by wattle fences. The absence of electricity means that daily life
revolves around the rising and setting of the sun. The MLE coordinator explained to the team
that the small land base, low agricultural productivity, and meagre incomes have led to rising
indebtedness, trapping the Juang in a vicious circle of poverty. Less than 1 per cent of the
families interviewed owned agricultural equipment (like ploughs, carts, and tillers) and farm
animals (like bullocks). This indicates the extent and severity of landlessness among the community.
Generally, the Juang own movable assets in the form of consumer durables. However, not a
single family possessed pump sets for irrigation, evidence of their very low asset-owning capacity.
Money comes from selling goods in the market. The market is the domain of women, where
they negotiate and barter.
48 ‘Accessibility of tribal[s] to government provisions is relatively less in comparison to other classes. Variousassociated factors are observed [as being] responsible[,] such as [a] schematic understanding, approachability on[the] part of tribal families, less tribal development[,] concentration due to [the] scattered demographic situation.’See the World Bank study, Integrated Social and Environmental Assessment Study: Vol. 1.2. Tribal Inclusion andDevelopment Assessment and Tribal Development Plan of Targeted Rural Initiatives for Poverty Termination andInfrastructure, 2007, p. 9. See also ‘Health Status of Primitive Tribes of Orissa’, ICMR Bulletin, vol. 33, no. 10,October 2003.
49 It takes about four hours to reach Alang village from the centre of Keonjhar.
32
The life of the Juang has become increasingly vulnerable due to a persistent lack of assured
entitlements to their resource base. They have also been disproportionately affected by
displacement caused by mining operations and irrigation projects in the area. The team was
informed that during the 1990s, a forest area the size of Wales in the Juang-populated blocks
was lost to a dam project. The state of Orissa has signed more than £10 billion worth of
mining agreements in the past two years, and is planning more. As Naveen Patnaik, the chief
minister of Orissa, told the state legislature, ‘No one—I repeat no one—will be allowed to
stand in the way of Orissa’s industrial progress.’ These socio-economic conditions have
worsened the Juangs’ social exclusion, and the importance that the community gives to
education is naturally low.50
Social inclusion of Juang tribal children, including girl children, through MLE
The aim of the MLE schools is to create an educational service that incorporates the values of
the ST communities. The intervention does not have a gender perspective, but it is hoped that
ST parents will have greater confidence in a schooling system that reflects their culture, and
hence will trust the authorities with the education of their girl children.
Enrolment
MLE has led to an increase in the pupil enrolment rate since the academic year 2007–2008.
In Duarsuni village in Banspal block, the school register attests to the fact that there has been
an increase of eight pupils, six of whom are girls, on the enrolment figures of last year’s Class
1 intake. Similarly, in Alang village in Harichandanpur block, there has been an increase of six
pupils, five of whom are girls, on the enrolment figures of last year’s Class 1 intake. While it
is difficult to exactly correlate the link between MLE and the increased school attendance
figures, interviews with community members point to a newly developed trust in the school
institution on the part of local residents. Consequently, around three quarters of parents
interviewed explained that since MLE has been introduced, they are more willing to send
their children to school. In FGDs conducted in both villages, people said that the newly appointed
MLE teacher, selected from their own community, understands their needs. One respondent,
the father of a girl child from Duarsuni, said that the MLE teacher had come around to his
house and had spoken with him about the possibility of allowing his daughter to attend Class
1. The respondent described the visit from the teacher in vivid terms, as it was the first time
that his family had been shown some consideration by the school establishment. In Alang, a
group of mothers interviewed in FGDs explained that their children, now in Class 2, seem
much more at ease in the MLE setting. One mother said that her daughter used to be afraid
50 The already poor economic situation makes Juang households less able to withstand additional economic shocks,and hence children are used as insurance for supporting the family.
33
of her Class 1 (non-tribal) teacher. But now that her daughter has entered the MLE Class 2,
taught by a Juang tribal teacher, she has noticed a positive change in her daughter’s behaviour.
It is for this reason that the respondent decided without hesitation to send her youngest daughter
to the MLE Class 1 at the start of this academic year. Duarsuni village fathers also agreed
that they are more disposed to send their daughters to school when they can trust the tribal
teacher.51 Indeed, one of the most positive aspects of the intervention that has emerged is the
fact that MLE tribal teachers are committed to seeing that the younger generation from their
own community attend school. Parents explained that prior to the intervention, it was well
known that non-tribal teachers take days off from teaching, which worked to dissuade
community members from enrolling their children in school. The headmaster of the Duarsuni
village school realized how MLE could affect the enrolment of girl children. He said, ‘The girl
will want to come to school when she can communicate freely in Juang with a teacher from
her own community. Then the teacher can become more aware of the girl’s potential for
success, which in turn will enhance her confidence levels.’
Almost all community members in both villages seemed to believe that residential schools would
provide the solution to the problem of the current limited enrolment of girl children.52 Parents
expressed enthusiasm about sending their daughters to these schools if scholarships were provided
as this would take away the burden of providing food and clothing.53 While being favourably
disposed to the idea of residential schools, however, some parents at the same time felt that their
daughters would be exposed to many more dangers and would be more vulnerable away from
home.
At present, there are three separate but probably overlapping programmes that aim to increase
the school enrolment levels of the girl child:
• Model Cluster School (MCS) aims to increase female enrolment in education through
vocational life skills training for girls.
• Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) is a residential high school programme for
dropout girls.
51 ‘I no longer have any fears about leaving my daughter with the teacher’ (Mo jhia ku sir ka sahita chadi baku aumora dara nahi).
52 Orissa was a pioneer state in setting up special types of residential educational institutions. OPEPA has establishedand manages different residential educational institutions all over the state to promote tribal education. See theWorld Bank Study, Integrated Social and Environmental Assessment Study: Tribal Inclusion and DevelopmentAssessment and Tribal Development Plan, 2007, p. 13.
53 Institute of Development Studies, ‘Tackling Social Exclusion in Health and Education: Case Studies from AsiaSummary Report’, July 2006. Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) in Bangladesh has been successfulin promoting residential schools. In Orissa, the concept of residential centres emerged in 2002 out of a partnershipbetween the District Collector of Balangir district and ActionAid. The residential centres were conceived as a meansof providing care and education for the children of migrant workers from Balangir who would otherwise have to dropout of school when their parents migrated out of the district in search of work.
34
• National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL). As part of the
SSA framework to accelerate the education of girl children, it focuses on universal enrolment,
retention, and achievement in quality education.54
The lack of coordination between the above programmes might not help in creating streamlined
policies aimed at increasing girl child enrolment.
Table 8: Changes in girl child enrolment (2007–2008)
Enrolment Enrolment Enrolment Enrolment Total Total
of Girls of Boys of Girls of Boys Enrolment Enrolment
(2006–2007) (2006–2007) (2007–2008) (2007–2008) (2006–2007) (2007–2008)
Duarsuni 13 11 19 13 24 32
Alang 2 8 7 9 10 16
Dropout rates
Many Juang parents decide to take their daughters out of school before they complete their
studies. They said that they had insufficient resources to cope with the direct and indirect costs
of schooling, and hence preferred to invest in the education of sons because daughters will
marry and leave for the husband’s home.55 However, several Duarsuni MTA members did feel
that a girl’s ideas could develop if she stayed in school long enough. One mother in Alang village
said, ‘If a girl is educated, she will perform better than a boy. She will be trusted more as girls do
things better than boys.’ This shows not only that mothers are aware of the benefits of education
but also reveals the level of respect accorded to an educated person. Mothers in the FGDs
conducted in Alang village said in no uncertain terms that they would like their daughters to
continue in school, but then added that the best thing that a girl could do was to marry. For most
parents, a girl’s greatest gift to her family is to get married. The average age of marriage for
girls is about 17–18 years, but most of them would have already dropped out of school well
before this, in any event. The team observed that the innovative MLE materials emphasize
child-centred education and also filter learning through Juang culture (music and dance, arts and
crafts), thus reducing the dropout rate.
54 The objectives of the programme include: narrowing of the gender gap in the educational sector; greaterparticipation of women and girls in the field of education; and stressing the relevance and quality of girls’ educationfor their empowerment. See http://www.opepa.in/Npegel.
55 A useful strategy in Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu has been increased subsidies that compensate parents,leading to the raising the enrolment rates of girls. See Bridge Gender Development Report, ‘India Gender Profile’,pp. 42–43.
35
Insert 1.
Paina Juang: A success story of a dropout girl from Duarsuni village, Banspalblock
Paina with a team member and the translator
Paina Juang* is a seven-year-old Juang girl from Duarsuni village.56 She had initially attended
school for a couple of months in 2007, but dropped out shortly thereafter. Her parents explained
that they could not see the relevance of education since Paina complained of finding it difficult
to understand the Oriya-language instruction of her teacher. Paina’s parents decided that
attending school was not furthering her development and preferred to keep her at home to
help with household tasks. When MLE was introduced in the Duarsuni village school, the
MLE teacher, who is from the same community, convinced Paina’s parents to send their
daughter back to school. Paina is now in Class 1 and enjoys socializing with her friends in
school. She also participates in MLE extracurricular activities such as storytelling festivals.
She has been so inspired by school that she wishes to become a teacher!
Absenteeism
Since the beginning of the MLE intervention, the appointed OPEPA MLE coordinator in Keonjhar
has led a series of drives encouraging parents to send their children to school on a daily basis.
The coordinator explained, ‘ST communities must be given the attention they deserve and should
be included in the educational framework. I try to do this by visiting the villages and talking to
the people and hearing their views on what they want from their schools.’ Indeed, both the MLE
teachers in Alang and Duarsuni villages point to the fact that the new MLE setting catering to
tribal needs has acted as an impetus in ensuring that ST pupils are kept interested in learning.
Pupils are now more likely to attend school without frequent absences. The emphasis in MLE
on reducing the absenteeism rate is substantiated by studies linking poor student performance
with high rates of absences.57
The team did not get an opportunity to speak with the pupils of the non-MLE school as they
were all absent. Surprisingly, the school is situated extremely close to the village, but due to the
drizzling rain on that particular day not a single child had come to school. Both the headmaster
and the teacher believe that a lack of awareness among parents and the non-Juang language as
a medium of instruction are the major obstacles in generating interest in education among parents
and children. For the average girl child, the major obstacle to regular school attendance is her
duty to perform certain household tasks. The teacher showed the team the attendance register;
a striking number of red crosses for absences appeared next to girls’ names. Assuming that a
zero dropout rate exists, the mean rate for girl child absences is 60–70 days in a school year of
180 days.
56 The respondent’s name has been changed for confidentiality purposes.
57 The World Bank South Asian Human Development Report, Learning Achievements in India: A Study of PrimaryEducation in Orissa, May 2007, p. 18.
36
Generally, in all the villages visited, adjusting school timings and conditions to fit the schedule of
household tasks performed by girls was mentioned by respondents as a solution to the problem
of female absenteeism; shorter days, seasonal sessions, and running classes in shifts to allow
girls to complete housework were mentioned as possibilities by respondents as possible
solutions.58 This thinking is in line with the Non-formal Education (NFE) schemes, which were
implemented in the 1990s across the state. NFE had some success in making school times meet
the working patterns of children from ST communities.
MLE and the girl child
MLE was never designed with the intention of targeting the girl child. Thus, a missing component
of MLE is the lack of emphasis on gender. Currently, MLE materials do not incorporate activities
specifically tailored to the needs of the girl child. There are very few female characters in the
books with whom girl children can relate to on a personal level. Girls are not yet fully empowered
to think about their leadership roles in society, and the MLE materials do not facilitate this kind
of debate. Moreover, as noted above, female role models are absent from MLE. Due to the low
female literacy rate in the tribal community, the lack of female teachers at the local level remains
the greatest challenge faced by programmes for the inclusion of the girl child in the school
institution. A number of girl respondents indicated their interest in becoming teachers, but there
are no female teachers to act as mentors either in real life or in the educational materials.
Participation
Parent participation
It is well known that student attendance and participation is closely linked to parental involvement
in the school institution. In both Alang and Duarsuni villages, the majority of parents interviewed
(around 90 per cent) explained that they were mostly illiterate and hence for them the notion of
education is remote. Given this weak educational background, OPEPA through MLE has tried
to involve parents in formal school meetings such as those provided under the MTA and PTA
framework. The Duarsuni village school boasted a livelier MTA forum than the Alang village
school. The mothers in Duarsuni said that they attended the MTA meetings, which are held
once every three months, and tried to encourage as many women as possible to attend the
meetings. There was also an MTA notice board in the school, which displayed pictorially the
aims of the group. MTA members took pride in attending meetings and having an outlet to voice
their opinions. In Alang village, the MTA was not as active, partly because of the intensive rice
cultivation work that takes up most of the women’s time. The team further noticed that there
58 The State Policy on Primary Education of Tribal Children in Orissa states, ‘Working hours of the school and itsalternatives other than that of the residential schools should be encouraged to suit the local conditions. However, aminimum time norm, i.e. at least four hours per day[,] must be locally decided and adhered to.’ Para 5.3. The StatePolicy also recommends that ECE [Early Childhood Education] centres should act as an alternative to the earlystages of primary school, ensuring continuous enrolment in the school thereafter.
37
was little mention of the fathers’ participation in these meetings, highlighting the need for greater
interaction between the school staff. Fathers need to be made aware of the value of female
education so that they can encourage their daughters to attend school.
In both villages, parents stated that they would like to participate more in their children’s
educational development.59 No examinations are held in primary school, which adds to the
difficulty of parents keeping track of their children’s academic performance. At present, files on
the school performance of each MLE student are prepared and kept by the school headmaster.
This means that parents who are illiterate cannot read these reports. Some parents in Duarsuni
village wondered whether they could be informed verbally of their child’s progress at a formal
meeting with the teacher.
Community responses to MLE
The involvement of older people in both communities in helping to teach the meaning of Juang
traditions, words, and concepts to the younger generation was seen by many respondents as a
positive outcome of the intervention. The tribal leader in Alang said, ‘It has led to the beginning
of interactions between young and old community members around the preservation of Juang
language and culture.’ He added that a new Juang dictionary was being developed, evidence
that their language is finally gaining recognition. One young man said that he felt proud that his
Juang tradition was being recorded by officials. A number of community members in both
villages specifically stated that the Juang tribal museum was an important part of the intervention;
rather than seeing the intervention as being imposed by OPEPA, they saw the roots of the
intervention as being located within the community. These comments attest to the fact that the
communities have a sense of involvement with and ownership of the intervention process.
While some parents interviewed in the FGDs expressed delight that their children were being
taught in Juang finally, others also expressed hope that their children would learn Oriya. Rather
than viewing MLE as a tool that assisted in learning, a few parents in both villages voiced fears
that their children would become even more isolated if they did not learn Oriya.60 A telling
remark by one Alang father was, ‘How will my son leave the village and get a good job if he
cannot speak Oriya?’ This highlights the fact that some parents do not have a clear understanding
that MLE is a means of providing inclusive education rather than an end in itself. Two parents
from Alang village further explained that currently Juang children could not pass the state-wide
59 The State Policy on Primary Education of Tribal Children in Orissa states that the ‘report cards of each child inwhich the results of evaluation are recorded have to be shared with parents.’ Para. 6.6.5.
60 Kabeer argues that universalist approaches do have merits. There are strong grounds for adopting and implementingplurality and diversity within universal frameworks of provision. Existing targeted programmes have generallyserved as a means of compensating for government weakness in delivering on universal services rather than as ameans of addressing exclusion. Kabeer says that targeted programmes could serve to marginalize groups if they donot act as a bridge to mainstream education or if they lead to the labelling of particular groups. However, MLE is abridge for children to acquire the dominant language.
38
Class 8 exams, and questioned whether MLE would really help or whether it would just further
exclude these children from the mainstream.61 The headmaster of the Duarsuni village school
said that sometimes parents have a misconception about MLE and believe that their children’s
education may take twice as long if they do not start to learn in the state language. The headmaster
said that he always tries to inform and persuade parents that allowing children to learn in their
own language will result in better educational progress in the long term.
Community participation
Community participation in the MLE intervention took place through informal activities, such as
storytelling festivals held as part of the Srujan activities under the MLE framework. During the
time when the team was conducting fieldwork in Alang village, a storytelling festival was held in
the school courtyard. It was organized by the BRCC and the OPEPA MLE coordinator in
conjunction with community members. It was attended by all community members, who were
excited about the day’s entertainment; they listened to and watched the singing and dancing
with keen interest. The programme appeared to empower the audience, serving to highlight the
fact that the Juang community could indeed be the agents of their own projects and events. The
team wondered whether these activities and events could be held more regularly and whether
the school could host other Juang festivals and celebrations. This step could go some way
towards making the school institution a less remote and intimidating place.
It seems that MLE encourages not only greater participation by the Juang in the education
service but also in the political decision-making processes that affect their lives. The team was
informed by the DPC of the attempts to incorporate PRIs into the administration of the MLE
intervention. In both Harichandanpur and Banspal blocks, meetings were held with the newly
elected PRI members. They were briefed on the activities of Srujan, and the topic of MLE has
been placed as an item on the agenda of their monthly meetings. Educational Innovation Funds,
which are granted under the SSA framework, are also managed locally by each of the MLE
schools visited and these are dispersed on the basis of the social barriers that need to be
overcome.62 The DPC also explained that attempts have been made to involve the Jati
Mahasabha in the MLE framework by encouraging tribal management of MLE schools. Similarly,
to make MLE schools more inclusive, the Duarsuni villagers suggested that young Juang people
61 Although the opinions of these two parents are not representative, they seemed to imply that there was adeliberate policy to exclude the Juang community from progressing through the education system. Their misconstruedviews show that there is miscommunication and misunderstanding between the Juang community and the educationservice providers.
62 Innovation Funds under SSA are granted to interventions that boost the performance of first-generation learners(Department of Education, 2006). Innovation Funds are distribution in line with the Seventy-third Amendment ofthe Constitution, which was enacted in 1992. This act delegated various powers and responsibilities to locallyelected bodies called panchayats, a step that provides a more broad-based process to address the problem of socialexclusion.
39
and students should be encouraged to participate in school management.63 Other practical methods
to foster community pride in the school building were suggested by the headmaster of the
Duarsuni village school, such as giving community members the opportunity to take care of the
school building’s upkeep.
Service delivery
MLE, as shown by increased attendance rates, is generating demand for educational services.
However, at the same time, the supply of quality educational services needs to be improved and
expanded.
Incentives to parents
Incentive schemes under SSA are aimed at creating greater demand for education. Parents in
Alang village were unaware of the exact details of SSA, while parents in Duarsuni village
recalled hearing about this government programme. One community member was eager to
inform the team of the exact details of SSA, which shows that ST communities are not merely
passive recipients of government aid, but also want to engage with the government projects
being implemented in their area. What was more interesting, however, is that parents in both
villages actually identified the MLE intervention rather than SSA as the reason behind their
decision to send their children to school. Provision of school uniforms, school books, and midday
meals, which act as incentives under the SSA framework, were viewed as part of the MLE
intervention. While these incentives were being offered before the introduction of the MLE
intervention, it was clear that parents only began to take notice of these benefits once the MLE
intervention began. In this way, the community has contextualized MLE around the SSA incentive
framework, showing that it is MLE that is the vehicle behind educational inclusion. Parents in
both villages frequently asked if more incentives could be provided. One respondent asked if
subsidies to fund the education of girl children might be given to parents. In the non-MLE
school, similar incentives under the SSA framework exist, but the Class 1 teacher said that
parents rarely comment on the provision of free school uniforms.
Recruitment
The team interviewed both MLE teachers at each school. They were recruited in 2007 when
they had acted as MLE resource persons in their respective villages. In this capacity, they
expressed their opinion on the MLE materials. They were then asked if they would like to
undergo training to become MLE teachers. The OPEPA tribal coordinator explained to the
63 The ‘Child Cabinet’ initiative, supported as part of the UNICEF Quality Education Package, provides forchildren to take on management roles in the school.
40
team that individuals were identified as teachers on the basis of their fluency in the local language
and the respect they commanded from others in the community. However, each school has one
MLE-trained teacher, which means that multi-class teaching persists and a high student-to-
teacher ratio exists.64 The headmaster of the Duarsuni village school said clearly, ‘It is imperative
that the recruitment of more Juang teachers takes on an even greater presence [sic] to sustain
the intervention.’
The teacher from the non-MLE school was interviewed at length. He spoke both Oriya and
English. He voiced his frustrations with having to deal with children every day with whom he
could not communicate effectively. He said, ‘I stare at blank vacant faces. It is not the children’s
fault, but the policy that is wrong. Both the children and I are lost.’ As a result, he has become
a fervent supporter of the MLE intervention. He believes that the children will benefit from
having an MLE-trained teacher from their own community. He explained the difficulties of
being placed in such a district by OPEPA, as he has to commute a total of four hours every day
to teach there. When the intervention is implemented later this year, he will take up other
employment and will be replaced by a local Juang teacher.
Insert 2.
Abhiram Juang*: Learning from his own experience65
Abhiram Juang, 25 years old, is an inspiring teacher in the Duarsuni village school. He uses
role-playing techniques to teach children, enacts sketches of well-known Juang folktales, and
encourages active pupil participation.
During the interview, he said that he drew on his own very difficult schooling experience as an
example of how to avoid repeating the same mistakes that his own teachers had made when
he was a student. Having come to despise the school environment, which he found completely
alien, he left school after Class 5. He told the team that he found it very difficult learning in
Oriya. He explained, ‘I was so frustrated with learning, I just gave up, and that was it.’
Fortunately for Abhiram, after leaving school, he was persuaded by a family friend to attend
regular classes at a nearby residential school. In this way, he was able to keep up his Oriya
literacy skills.
When recruitment for the MLE intervention began last year, Abhiram was asked by the tribal
coordinator to take up the position of an MLE resource person, so he could encourage fellow
community members to take part in activities recording Juang folktales. He enjoyed the
experience so much that he spoke with the MLE coordinator about the possibility of becoming
an MLE teacher.
64 The World Bank South Asian Human Development Report, Learning Achievements in India: A Study of PrimaryEducation in Orissa, May 2007, p. 14. The study shows that multi-grade teaching has a negative impact on a child’sperformance.
65 The respondent’s name has been changed for confidentiality purposes.
41
Training
Rupantar, the teacher training programme run in conjunction with the MLE intervention, has
been successful in providing training to newly recruited teachers. The MLE teacher in the
Alang village school said that it has helped him develop the skills to be confident in front of
children. The team observed that he was an effective teacher and was able to involve the
children in group work and, more importantly, his role-playing teaching methods appeared to
keep the children amused. However, introductory teacher training has not been provided uniformly.
While the teacher from Duarsuni village received the full 15 days of MLE training, the teacher
from Alang village received only 12 days of training.
What perhaps is missing from the MLE intervention is the provision of regular in-service training
programmes and workshops.66 The teacher from the Duarsuni village school voiced his concerns,
saying that he was unsure how effective his teaching methods were and expressing a need for
regular feedback. The teacher from the Alang village school said that he had only managed to
complete 21 of the 30 themes, adding that he would like assistance in structuring his classes.
The headmaster of the Alang village school too lacked training in the MLE material and had
kept many of the themed materials locked up in his cupboard as opposed to using them. It seems
that providing opportunities to practise teaching during the teacher training period could help
MLE teachers in using the materials.67 Currently, MLE teachers have not received assistance
in preparing teaching plans, and neither of the teachers said that they had been shown methods
of carefully documenting records of progress in learning. The teacher training process needs to
equip teachers with the ability to use an effective record-keeping procedure, one that is not time
consuming and can be easily maintained.
Previous UNESCO studies have shown that regular training is more effective in developing
teaching methods than having teachers remain at a venue for a long time during a one-off
training session.68 Bringing teachers together for ‘in-service’ training is a valuable social learning
experience because here teachers can share their experiences and learn from one another.69
Awarding certificates to trainees for completing components of the training programme was
suggested by the MLE tribal coordinator as a means of enhancing the credibility of MLE teachers
in the eyes of parents and community members.70
66 The State Policy on Primary Education of Tribal Children in Orissa states that ‘each DIET [District Institute ofEducation and Training] shall have a Tribal Education unit, which shall plan and monitor the education programmefor teachers in tribal schools.’ Para 7.3.
67 The themed materials referred to here are the theme webs prepared by OPEPA. The webs contain seasonal themesfor a calendar year See: http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/efa/EFA_News/EFA_News2006B/3rd_MLE_WORKSHOP_REPORT.pdf, p. 19)
68 UNESCO, Promoting Literacy in Multilingual Settings, UNESCO, Bangkok, 2007, p. 12.
69 Ibid., p.13.
70 A consultant at a human development foundation based in Orissa said that there are hopes of setting up an MLEtraining centre in Bhubaneswar.
42
Service delivery from functionaries
Monitoring
At present, the programme is monitored and administered, with mixed results, by the BRCC at
the block level and by the CRCC at the cluster level. The BRCC and the CRCC for both blocks
explained, initially in the first set of interviews conducted, that they visited the schools regularly.
However, after a second interview was held with the CRCC of Harichandanpur block, it became
clear that he did not always fulfil his responsibilities, including visiting the schools on a regular
basis. The monitoring network between the block and cluster levels does not seem to be working
as smoothly as it should; interaction is infrequent because coordination and communication
between the different levels were reported as being rare.
The BRCC of Harichandanpur block was unable to see how MLE would actually empower the
tribal communities, and he thought that students could become confused by learning two languages.
In addition, he appeared to be withdrawn from the Juang community that he is supposed to
represent.71 The CRCC of Harichandanpur also doubted the sustainability of MLE without SSA
funding. The CRCC of the non-MLE school, although expressing excitement at the prospect of
the introduction of MLE during the current academic year, was unable to articulate the main
purpose of MLE, which was a worrying sign. The DPC of Keonjhar showed limited knowledge
of the details of the intervention, but expressed optimism about the future of MLE.72
At the Orissa state level, the team was fortunate to attend some meetings of MLE coordinators
for each of the ten designated MLE districts. It is clear that the level of service provision varies
sharply from district to district and that the OPEPA representation at the district level is greatly
dependent on the skills and leadership of the appointed MLE coordinator. Fortunately, Keonjhar
district has an extremely committed coordinator, who visits all the MLE schools twice a month.
It was clear that he had developed good relations with the Juang community and that they
trusted his views.
School-based infrastructure
The Duarsuni village school appeared to be a lively institution. Its MLE classroom was brightly
painted and featured instructional materials painted on the walls. The children did not sit in a
predetermined arrangement. It was a positive sign that both boys and girls sat in a mixed seating
71 The State Policy on Primary Education of Tribal Children in Orissa states, ‘A change in the mindset and attitudeof the administrators, policy makers and political leaders about the education of children from tribal communitiesshould precede and accelerate the scale and intensity of change initiatives. The education management should beproactive in bringing about the desired change.’ Para. 9.1.
72 The main challenge at the district level is the lack of empathy towards and awareness of the tribal population onthe part of the administration. The State Policy on Primary Education of Tribal Children in Orissa states that STcommunities are ‘infested with ignorance, diseases and indifference to education. These conditions create problemsfor providing and sustaining organized school education.’ Para. 3.4.
43
pattern, with girls occupying front-row positions. Both schools lacked desks and chairs, and the
children used their straw school bags as seating cushions on the concrete floor. Children
participated actively in classroom activities, and the MLE teacher encouraged girl children to
take part. The midday meal was cooked, served, and eaten in an orderly fashion. The children,
even the boys, collected firewood for cooking the meal. A prayer was said before the eating
commenced, and the children sat in a circle for the meal.
The Alang village school had noticeably poorer infrastructure. The classrooms were smaller,
with little or no natural lighting. Unlike the orderly way in which the midday meal had been
arranged at the Duarsuni village school, the midday meal at the Alang village school was cooked,
served, and eaten in a less systematic way. It was interesting, however, to see that an older girl
in the Alang village school was in charge of lunchtime proceedings, and had been accorded
monitor status by her peers.
The cooking facilities at both schools lack sanitation and hygiene, although the situation at the
Alang village school was somewhat worse. Piped water through taps, the water tank, and the
hand pump was available in the Duarsuni village school. In the Alang village school, the pump
was located outside of the school, and there were no taps. The poor quality of the Alang school
building was cause for some concern as studies have shown that school quality matters more
for excluded girls than for boys and children from tribal families.73 These studies show that girls
are less likely to enrol in, and are more likely to drop out from, poor quality schools with dilapidated
infrastructure—leaking roofs, broken walls, and dysfunctional sanitary facilities—than boys.
This suggests that girls’ enrolment is more sensitive than that of boys to improvements in school
building quality.74 Operation Blackboard, a quasi-experiment conducted by the GoI, provided an
additional teacher, a well-maintained classroom, and instructional materials to single-teacher
schools generally in remote rural areas. Evaluations of Operation Blackboard found that the
programme increased the primary completion rate of girls (but not boys), boosted reading
achievement for all students, and reduced the gender gap in reading achievement.75
A positive aspect about the school buildings is their location a short distance from the village.
The MLE teachers at both village schools said that they could easily visit the villages when
some children have been absent for a number of days and request to speak to their parents. In
Harichandanpur block, the major problem, however, arises once a pupil has completed Class 5,
as the nearest high school is located more than 2 km away and is accessible only by means of a
treacherous unpaved dirt track. In the wet season, this road is unsafe for travel. Because
73 The World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, ‘Social Exclusion and the Gender Gap in Education’, March2008, p. 20. See also Lloyd, Mensch and Clark, 2000.
74 Ibid., p. 21.
75 World Bank, 1996.
44
Harichandanpur block is not served by a nearby high school, the team heard of two girl children
who were forced to cut short their education in Class 5 and discontinue studying altogether.
Insert 3.
Susmita Juang*: Access to higher education denied76
Susmita Juang is a nine-year-old girl from Alang village. She completed Class 5 and was eager
to attend high school. However, after much discussion, her father decided to end her education.
He was opposed to his daughter travelling 2 km each day to and from the high school; he thought
it would be too dangerous for her to make the journey twice daily. Though Susmita was very
keen on continuing her studies, she respects her father’s decision. She explained, ‘We have
difficulty in changing schools. It is too far. There are no familiar teachers and we will have no
friends.’ Despite this setback, Susmita still hopes of becoming a teacher one day.
The pyramid-like structure of the school system is well known; the number of schools falls
sharply from the primary level to the higher levels.77 The majority of primary-level schools in
Keonjhar offer classes only up to Class 5. Changing schools thus becomes imperative for a
large number of children who might wish to continue their studies. The consequences of this
move for children, especially those from marginal groups, have rarely been acknowledged or
addressed.
Working with community-based organizations78
The MLE coordinator of Keonjhar has already developed links with the local NGO, Suvendu
Mohan Pathaghar (SMP). He explained that he wished to strengthen the intervention with
other such partnerships.79 SMP assisted in generating awareness about MLE in the early stages
of the intervention. It has also developed an Education Watch Committee to monitor the dropout
rates in the MLE schools, and would like to start organizing after-school reading rooms for
children and parents.
Operational sustainability
The duration of the MLE intervention is from 2007–2012. At present, MLE is in the first year of
its operation. Currently, UNICEF provides advocacy services to the state government.
76 The respondent’s name has been changed for reasons of confidentiality.
77 Geetha Nambissan, ‘Exclusion, Inclusion and Education: Perspectives and Experiences of Dalit Children’, March2008, p. 11.
78 See The World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, The Role of Nongovernmental Organizations in PrimaryEducation: A Study of Six NGOs in India, January 2001.
79 The State Policy on Primary Education of Tribal Children in Orissa states, ‘Effective education of tribal childrenrequires a culture of working together. The education system must provide space for credible NGOs, social activistgroups and civil society to work with the government system’. Para. 9.7.
45
International educationalists were employed on a consultancy basis for developing MLE teaching
materials, with UNICEF financing some of the costs of these consultancy posts. OPEPA uses
a proportion of the SSA funding to finance the MLE intervention. However, it appeared that, at
least at the district level, there were doubts as to the long-term sustainability of MLE. The DPC
expressed his concern about MLE continuing past 2012 once SSA funding ends. Fortunately, at
the state level, the MLE intervention is led by a committed and enthusiastic figure, Dr Mahendra
Mishra, who is fully behind the exercise.80 The team witnessed first hand his dedication to the
intervention during a state-wide meeting of MLE coordinators. Dr Mishra is actively looking for
additional sources of funding for the intervention. In this regard, he has made contact with
Cambridge Education consultants, who have won a contract from the UK Department for
International Development (DFID) to conduct education programmes. He is hoping that MLE
in Orissa might be one such programme.
Consolidation
Over the long term, MLE will be introduced in pre-school. This is an extremely positive step
because the earlier MLE is commenced, the better the progress of children.81 In general, pre-
schools in tribal communities should be promoted as they have shown themselves to be effective
in reducing children’s subsequent primary school dropout rates and in boosting their achievement
rates. In addition, emphasis should be placed on ensuring that students ultimately develop the
highest degree of content mastery and second-language proficiency possible, as the time spent
instructing the child in the mother tongue for as long as possible is a wise investment.82
It is critical to the success of the MLE intervention that time should be spent on a thorough
follow-up in each village. Currently, MLE has been implemented in 200 schools, and it is to be
further scaled up to another 300 schools in the state. However, the priority should be consolidation
over coverage, which will ensure that students gain the full benefits of the intervention. Further,
MLE teachers should be recruited from and trained in the villages where the MLE intervention
already exists. More attention should be devoted to building up a cohort of MLE teachers
trained by OPEPA. A network of teachers should be gradually built up, with each group going
on to train the next set of MLE teachers.
80 As a folklore expert, he is both extremely empathetic towards the tribal communities and also interested inpreserving tribal culture.
81 Pre-school currently falls under the ambit of the Department of Women and Children Development (DWCD).
82 Carol Benson, ‘The Limitations of Bilingual Models for Designing Effective Schooling in Multilingual Contexts’,unpublished paper.
46
Table 9: Summary of findings
Concern / Fear Responses
National Level
Local Level
• Bilingual education will lead to
demands for autonomy by ST
groups
• Bilingual education will lead to
instability in border areas
• Tribal teachers are not capable of
teaching the national curriculum
• Students will be confused by
learning two languages, and
therefore will not learn the
correct form of the national
language
• Misconception that MLE takes
twice as long to learn
• Minorities have less ownership of
MLE because they lack
understanding of the approach
• The national and state languages
are more important than the
mother tongue
• Misconception that MLE will take
twice as long for children to learn
and the community will be further
excluded
• In other countries and in Andhra
Pradesh where MLE has been
implemented, no such demands
were made
• Relevant education will provide
for social inclusion
• Ongoing support for tribal
teachers through a teacher
training scheme
• Experience of MLE programmes
in other country contexts does not
show this
• Juang script uses Oriya
characters
• Organize frequent workshops for
education officials from the
district and cluster levels with
community members
• Discussions with tribal leaders,
teachers, and parents to raise
awareness of the importance of
first-language instruction. The
value placed on the mother tongue
increases the perceived value that
a community has of its own
language.
• Increased understanding of the
purpose of MLE is necessary: it is
a means, not an end
47
Suggestions and Policy Implications
MLE is still very much in an early state of development, but has already positively affected the
MLE schools and the Juang community at large. However, MLE is just one of the tools that
must work alongside other socially inclusive policy processes. While bearing in mind that MLE
has been running for only one year, the team puts forward for consideration some general and
specific suggestions.
General suggestions
1. Information about the extent of exclusion of Juang and ST children generally from education
is necessary for the effective implementation of the management process at the local level.
Strengthening data management systems that provide disaggregated data by tribal group,
gender, and other characteristics at the local level should be considered.83
2. Advocacy and awareness-raising projects highlighting the benefits of MLE should be
strengthened. The aims of MLE and its socially inclusive dimensions should be clearly
disseminated to both service providers and parents.
3. The gap between home and school still needs to be bridged. The school still has to be
perceived as the community’s own school. A possible suggestion in this regard might be to
organize after-school sewing classes and arts and crafts clubs.
Specific suggestions
Girl child
It will obviously take time to alter strongly held cultural beliefs about the role of women and the
value of education. Even if the girl child’s education is free, the opportunity cost for the family is
still considered high as it means one less pair of hands around the house to help with chores.
Working with schools and communities to sensitize adults about gender-based inequality would
go some way to counteract the negative conditions for girls’ education. As stated above, MLE
does not focus exclusively on providing access to education to the girl child, but given the
enthusiasm engendered in the tribal community by the intervention, OPEPA could use the
community support generated to now focus on the girl child.
MLE could highlight the link between education of the girl child and her employment prospects.
Females might be encouraged to set up women’s self-help groups (SHGs); adolescent girl
83 These data must be complemented by data on dropouts and on those who have never attended school. However,the level of disaggregation is often not currently included in either routine government monitoring systems such asthe Education Management Information System of DPEP, as the team was informed by the DPC.
48
groups could be established alongside MLE as a source of empowerment and to demonstrate
the utility of having basic literacy and numeracy skills. Linking education to employment has
been achieved through NFE programmes in other states of India. NFE programmes were
designed to meet the needs of children with considerable work responsibilities. NFE is more
flexible than a formal system of education and emphasizes practical life skills. It is the most
rapidly expanding sector in education.84 MLE could look at the NFE model for guidance.
Parents
Parents need to be incorporated into MLE more strongly and their participation encouraged.
The team suggests that the performance file on each child could be used for creating a pictorial
report, which could be given to parents, thus enabling them to take pride in the educational
achievements of their child. Evening events showing parents the MLE workbooks and basic
literacy classes, especially for mothers, could promote greater interest in schools.85 Indeed, it is
well known that the social impact of female education at all levels is profound. Most prominent
is the role of mothers’ education in lowering their own fertility rates, reducing infant and child
mortality, and promoting children’s education.
MLE teachers
The intervention could develop a cohort of Juang trainer teachers responsible for training new
MLE instructors. This step will facilitate the sustainability of the intervention over the long term.
More importantly, recruiting and training more female teachers will enhance the inclusion of girl
children into the MLE framework. A similar measure could be the preferential promotion of
female teachers to administrative positions, which would be a positive step for the long-term
involvement of women in the intervention
Service providers
Increased regularity in the monitoring of MLE schools could be encouraged by BRCCs and
CRCCs. Greater coordination between the different MLE stakeholders could be fostered so
that there are no gaps in information sharing.
Better working relationships between the different government agencies and the projects servicing
the STs could also be encouraged. OPEPA could develop coordination between the ST and SC
Development Department and the Women and Child Development Department in promoting
MLE. More concerted strategies by different government agencies working together could
allow for the implementation of a more streamlined educational policy.
84 In the period 1986–1993, the number of NFE centres in India grew from 126,000 in 1986 to 238,000 in 1993, withall-girl centres increasing from 20,500 to 79,000 Source: Institute of Development Studies, ‘Tackling Social Exclusionin Health and Education: Case Studies from Asia Summary Report, July 2006. See also State Policy on PrimaryEducation of Tribal Children in Orissa, which states that life skills and work experience education should bedeveloped. ‘Various life skills shall be identified class-wise and shall be integrated in all curricular and co-curricularactivities ultimately aiming at developing vocational choice among the children.’ Para. 6.13.
85 The State Policy on Primary Education of Tribal Children in Orissa states that ‘the parental, especially mothers’,empowerment has to be addressed for making the education of their children meaningful to individual development.’Para. 4.3.
49
Conclusion
Building socially inclusive societies based on the values of equality and non-discrimination is
critical if all people are to be able to claim their rights. Social inclusion through access to education
of the Juang tribe is being facilitated through the MLE intervention in Orissa. Indeed, MLE is a
tool for making educational services socially inclusive. However, MLE and other educational
programmes cannot exist in isolation. Educational interventions in Keonjhar should be aligned
with economic and livelihood development programmes, as it is well known that children from
economically secure households gain more benefits from education.
MLE ensures that the Juang as a minority do not feel rejected by or isolated from the majority.
They are not forced to abandon what they already possess—their knowledge and experience
and their linguistic and cultural heritage—in order to pursue their educational goals.86 ST
communities are equal partners in the development process rather than passive bystanders, as it
is their skill, knowledge, and capacity that are tapped under the MLE framework. MLE also
prompts service providers to re-evaluate traditionally marginalizing practices at school.
It is simplistic to claim that implementing MLE will equalize opportunities for girls and women,
but it does enable them to feel more at ease in the school setting. Indeed, Juang girl children
have faced double disadvantages in accessing education on account of their gender and ST
status. However, it is clear that designing and establishing a school system that recognizes the
ethno-linguistic background of STs goes a long way towards improving educational opportunities
for all.
86 UNESCO, Promoting Literacy in Multilingual Settings, UNESCO, Bangkok, 2007, p.16.
50
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52
Annexure I
Map of Keonjhar district
53
Annexure II
Map of Alang village
54
Annexure III
Map of Duarsuni village (drawn by a team member)
55
Annexure IV
Keonjhar (Census of India, 2001) http://www.censusindia.net/
56
Annexure V
Phase of a three-language programme (UNESCO)
UNESCO (2007). Promoting Literacy in Multilingual Settings. UNESCO, Bangkok.
57
Annexure VI
Multilingual education that provides a bridge from a minority learner’s own language
to the second language and leads to multilingualism and multi-literacy
UNESCO (2007). Promoting Literacy in Multilingual Settings. UNESCO, Bangkok.
58
Annexure VII
Impact of MLE on enrolment in 10 pilot schools in Keonjhar (Class 1)
Compiled by authors using data from OPEPA
59
Annexure VIII
Processes of exclusion and mechanisms of inclusion in education
Community-level factors Institutional factors Mechanisms
• Household poverty
• Traditionally perceived roles
of women and girls
• Lack of awareness of rights
• Lack of linkage between
utility of education and
employment
• Lack of disaggregated
management data
• Lack of opportunities
beyond the household
• Discriminatory institutions
that do not meet needs of
constituency
• Language barriers
• Inappropriate curriculum
for tribal girl children
• Service provision and
delivery to address needs
of tribal communities
• Residential schools
• Stipends to girls to
encourage attendance
• Increased subsidies and
scholarships
• Financial incentives for
inclusion
• MLE
• Linking education
interventions to overall
livelihood strategies
60
Annexure IX
List of one-on-one interviewees
Interviewee Level
State Coordinator, ST/SC education, OPEPA State level
District Project Coordinator (DPC), Keonjhar district District level
BRCC, Banspal block Block level
BRCC, Harichandanpur block Block level
CRCC, Banspal block Cluster level
CRCC, Harichandanpur block Cluster level
Headmaster and MLE teacher, Duarsuni Primary School School level
Headmaster and MLE teacher, Alang Primary School School level
Headmaster and MLE teacher, Panasnasa Primary School School level
Father of an MLE student, Duarsuni village Village level
NGO worker Suvendu Mohan Pathaghar
61
Background Note on the Internship Programme
Knowledge Community on Children in India (KCCI) initiative aims to enhance knowledge
management and sharing of policies and programmes related to children in India. Conceived as
part of KCCI, the objectives of the 2008 Summer Internship Programme were to give young
graduate students from across the world an opportunity to gain field-level experience of and
exposure to the challenges and issues facing development work in India today.
UNICEF India hosted over 82 interns from India, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Georgia,
Ghana, Italy, Japan, Montenegro, Netherlands New Zealand, Norway, Portugal Spain, Singapore,
Sweden, South Korea, Tajikistan, United Kingdom and United States of America to participate
in the 2008 Summer Internship Programme. Interns were grouped into teams of four or five and
placed in sixteen different research institutions across fourteen states (Andhra Pradesh, Assam,
Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar
Pradesh and West Bengal), studying field-level interventions for children from 28 May to 5
August 2008.
Under the supervision of partner research institutions, the interns conducted a combination of
desk research and fieldwork, the end result of which were 18 case studies of interventions
aimed at promoting the rights of children and their development. The case studies cover key
sectors linked to children and development in India, and address important policy issues for
children in the country. These include primary education, child survival, health, nutrition water
and sanitation, child protection and village planning.
Another unique feature of this programme was the composition of research teams comprising
interns with multidisciplinary academic training and multicultural backgrounds. Teams were
encouraged to pool their skills and knowledge prior to the fieldwork and devise a work-plan that
allowed each team member an equal role in developing the case study. Group work and
cooperation were key elements in the production of outputs, and all this is evident in the interesting
and multifaceted narratives presented by these case studies on development in India.
The 2008 KCCI Summer Internship Programme culminated in a final workshop, at which all
teams of interns presented their case studies for a discussion on broader issues relating to
improvements in service delivery for every child in the country. This series of case studies aims
to disseminate this research to a wider audience and to provide valuable contributions to KCCI’s
overall knowledge base.
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