SIL Bangladesh

MTB-MLE--Mother tongue-based multilingual Education

The Bangladesh National Education Policy 2010 ensures the right of all children to receive mother-tongue education. This is a significant step to provide quality education to children of all backgrounds. SIL International Bangladesh is supporting a number of ethnic minority communities with mother tongue- based preschool programs that enable children to start their education in the language they know best.

SIL helps communities to design and create culturally appropriate curriculum, reading resources. It raises awareness among parents and community leaders, provides regular training for teachers and school supervisors and makes monitoring visits to schools. The curriculum is based on themes that are familiar to children from their environment. This ensures that school is a familiar place where they can build on the knowledge they bring from home. In their first year of pre-primary education the children develop their speaking and listening skills in the mother tongue. The teachers use a child-centered approach, based around materials designed and written by community members. Children in their second year of pre-primary education begin to read and write in their mother tongue as well as practicing speaking and understanding Bangla in preparation for primary school.

SIL started developing teaching and learning materials with yhe Kol community in early 2010. In 2011, the Kol community in Chapai Nawabgonj and Rajshahi districts ran two mother-tongue classes for children aged four. In 2012, two more mother-tongue classes were introduced for age five. This year 54 Kol children are enjoying mother-tongue education.

In 2012, the Koch community in Sherpur district also started planning a multilingual education (MLE) programme. In 2013, SIL Bangladesh worked with community leaders to raise awareness of the value of the Koch language and culture to strengthen the local language committee and also helped to finalise the materials that the Koch community had produced for use in mother tongue preschools. This year 40 children are enjoying mother-tongue education.

SIL Bangladesh has been working with the Manipuri (Bishnupriya) community in the Sylhet division since 2003. SIL helped the community to establish a local language committee which started the two mother-tongue preschools in 2004.  In 2016, the community is running five schools with SIL’s support. Eighty children are attending the preschool classes.

We are supporting one MLE school in the Mahle community this year.

 SIL Bangladesh helped the Hajong community to develop Pre-primary 1 MLE materials in 2015.  We are still working to develop more educational materials with the community. 

Impact Stories of Multilingual Education >>