Apart from institutional knowledge that Scheduled Tribe (ST) and the Scheduled Caste (SC) primary students acquire in classrooms, lessons in the indigenous knowledge system — specific to their communities will be imparted to them in schools governed by the ST & SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare department, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
Under the multilingual education system, such will be taught both in their tribal language and Odia in a graded manner so that their transition to Odia becomes easier once they reach Class VI. The department will implement the two changes in its primary schools to align with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
How will this work?
As per P Patel, the lead researcher with the Academy of Tribal Languages and Culture (ATLC) under the department, in the current education system, the culture and knowledge hidden in tribal languages have been undermined and children most often forget the heritage and cultural traditions that were shaped by their ancestors.
"Under NEP, the teaching methodology will be changed to expose students to their ancestral knowledge systems. Be it shift cultivation, tribal counting system or tribal rituals, such topics and more under the indigenous knowledge system will be integrated into the education system to make the students aware of both science and their cultural identity," he informed.
The department is releasing the revised edition of primers in 21 tribal languages at the primary level this year. "Revised primers in Desia, Koya, Kuvi, Saura, Munda, Sadri, Gondi languages have already been published and distributed among students and those in other languages are in the press," Patel said.
For Class I, II and III, these primers are in Language, Environmental Science and Math subjects. Similarly, the language subject for Class IV and V will be taught in both the tribal language and Odia. "They will be taught language in a graded manner. For example, Kui language. Books and language of teaching in language subject will be both in Kui and Odia so that the child does not face any problem in understanding Odia when he or she reaches the upper primary grade (Class VI)," he explained, as stated in The New Indian Express report.
In the present language transition plan under the multilingual education programme, the child learns his mother tongue first (Class I to Class III) and Odia is introduced gradually as a second language in Class IV and English as a third language in both Classes IV and V. In both classes, Odia is the language subject for the students.
