Mother Tongue Based Learning a Hit among AP Tribals

Nachiket Jamadar

Nachiket Jamadar

Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) Model has been adopted with the intention of providing proper education to non Telugu dialect tribal students.

Mother tongue based learning

The Tribal Cultural Research and Training Mission (TCRTM), Andhra Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh school education department have come up with an initiative called Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE)  to provide education to students belonging to tribal -students of non Telugu Dialect.

 

The MTBMLE covers tribal languages of Savara, Konda, Adivasi, Oria, Koya and Sugali. Nearly 1350 schools from across the state of Andhra Pradesh are currently implementing this new model of education and this is believed to help educate students from the tribal pockets of Parvathipuram, Araku, Paderu, Hukumpeta, Rampachodavaram, Chinturu etc. The TCRTM with the help of the Education department has prepared about 150 classes I and II textbooks for foundational literacy and numeracy in these tribal languages according to NEP guidelines. With this model in palace, the students would be transiting to learning in Telugu or English by the time they reach class 5.

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Initiative reduced tribal school dropouts

Experts are of the opinion that MTBMLE will not only help enable efficient and easy learning by reducing the gap between home and school languages but also help preserve the tribal languages. However the main advantage of the model is that it is helping students continue education in place of dropping out of school.

 

The Union ministry of tribal affairs is providing financial support to the TCRTM for implementation. TCRTM has also signed an MoU with NEG-FIRE for promotion of MTBMLE.



Ravindra Babu, TCRTM mission director said that around 80 schools have been chosen as model schools for monitoring this programme. The gaps identified in these schools will be addressed and it will also help in scaling up of the initiative. It is also to be noted that the number of MTBMLE schools has increased from 920 in 2019-20 to 1350 now.