Tribal situation in Orissa

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Tribal situation in Orissa

• There are 62 tribal groups in Orissa.
• They constitute 23 of the total state population
• 32 tribes speak in their own languages
• Rest of the tribal has partially or totally
  assimilated in to Oriya language.
• Some of them have lost their language. (Gonds,
  Kondh, Mirdhas, Binjhals)
• Out of 30 districts 15 districts are with high
  tribal population.
• Seven tribal districts of south Orissa are with
  low female literacy (They are Kalahandi, Nuapada,
  Nabarangpur, Gajapati, Koraput, Rayagada,
  Malkangiri)
• Out of 314 Blocks 118 Blocks are under TSPlan
  having 50 to 100 tribal population.
• There are 13 Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) with
  out having access to communication, health and
  education.

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Tribal Languages and Major Tribes
I. There are three tribal language groups in
Orissa

• Austro-Asiatic (Santali, Munda, Saora Ho, Kol,
  Bonda etc.)
• Dravidian (Gond, Kondh, Kurukh,)
• Indo-Aryan (Bhunjia ,Bhumia, Bhatra etc)

II. Major /Primitive Tribes in Orissa
Major Tribes (Population in Lakhs) Gond(7.0),
Kondh(11.40), Santal(6.29), Saora(4.0),
Munda(3.96), Koya((1.41),Kol((4.0) Kishan(2.66),
Khadia(1.68),Parja((3.53)Bhumij(1.78) Oroan(2.57),
Bhuiyan(2.46)Bhatada(3.00)Ho (0.50) These
tribes have their own language. Primitive
Tribes Gadaba,Bonda, Choktia-Bhunjia, Kutia,
Dongria Kondh, Lanjia Saora,Paudi Bhuiyan,
Lodha, Didayi, Juang,Saora
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Community Participation Some Basic Issues

• Most of the tribal parents are non-literate
  and poor.
• Education directly affect their day to day
  income by drawing their children from home.
• Poor relationship between school and community
• Tribal community have mixed opinion regarding
  using tribal language in primary schools.
• Educated tribal oppose using tribal language in
  classroom
• Teachers in tribal areas do not involve the
  community in schooling process
• The experience of the tribal community, which is
  the best source to construct knowledge on tribal
  curriculum, is not utilized.

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Bilingual Teaching in tribal area schools

• Tribal area schools are monolingual in nature
  (only tribal language speakers)
• Many schools are bi-lingual in nature (Oriya
  and tribal speakers)
• Teachers are not trained on bi-lingual
  teaching method
• Tribal children are the source of mediating
  mother tongue with textbook language
• Learning is a mutual process among teachers
  and children, a teacher should ready to
  learn their mother tongue from the children, but
  non-tribal teachers dont take interest in
  bilingual education

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Enrollment Figures of ST Children in Orissa
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Schools with ST Children
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Overview of ST Children

• About 748000 Children of class I to lass III
  face severe language difficulties in
  comprehending the content and language.
• In early classes ST children promoted to
  higher classes having a weak foundation in
  content knowledge and also in language.
• Tribal Children are unable to read in regional
  language and unable to comprehend the texts
  properly.
• Rote memory followed in the classrooms help
  them in answering the questions with out
  proper comprehension.
• Pronunciation of aspirated words is difficult
  since in the tribal phonetics is completely
  different.
• Since reading and understanding are
  difficult, writing skill also becomes
  difficult among the children.
• Dropout of Tribal children is 77. And
  Tribal girls are neglected in comparison to
  the boy

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Attitude of Teachers Some Make beliefs

• Tribal language is inferior to the regional
  language.
• There's no grammar in spoken language.
• Spoken language is limited to the community
  and not by others
• Tribal language is parochial, not recognized
• Tribal language is not superior to the
  regional language.
• Tribal language is not the language of power
• Tribal children are docile
• Tribal girls are slow in comprehension
  compared to the boys
• Non tribal children are good in mathematics
• Moreover, teaching is not possible in tribal
  language

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Childrens apprehensions in class room

• They should not use mother tongue in
  classrooms/schools
• If they use mother tongue, teachers will scold
  them
• Other students will tease them
• Using mother tongue in school is a matter of
  shame.
• Teachers encourage the children to use
  regional language than mother tongue.
• Even teachers belonging to tribal community
  also feel shy in using mother tongue in
  classroom.
• Teachers dont understand their language

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Some Issues and Concerns

• The State Teacher Training Institute or
  teacher training Curriculum does not reflect the
  tribal education as a subject.
• Even in Ashram Schools, school culture is
  assimilative than contextual.
• Curriculum from the context is absent.
  Dichotomy of core and contextual areas in
  pedagogy is yet to be decided. Many believe
  that contextually is opposed to integration.
  There is least discussion on tribal education
  in teacher training
• Teachers as well as DI of schools dont follow
  that National policy of Education has provision
  of mother tongue education in tribal areas in
  primary classes. Therefore they dont promote
  tribal language in primary education
• Teachers dont use tribal primer due to want
  of official
• instructions from their Block education officers

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DPEP Interventions
In DPEP,Orissa some concrete steps were taken to
address tribal Education
Preparation 1996-97

• Formation of State and District Resource Group
  (involving linguists, Tribal experts,
  anthropologists, teachers from tribal community,
  non tribal teachers having interest in
  tribal culture and language, pedagogists)
• Identifying the issues on education of the
  tribal children (through workshop mode and
  through individual survey conducted among the
  tribal area teachers)
• Identified the training need of tribal area
  teachers (through workshops and survey)
• Teachers prepared training Module in the
  context of socio- cultural and linguistic
  variations with state support
• Conducted Linguistic survey and mapping to
  assess the gap of home language and school
  language in 25 Blocks with more than 70 tribal
  popn)

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DPEP Interventions
Process I 1998-2001

• Training of Teachers
• Trained 350 Master Trainers on pedagogic issues
  in tribal context from selected
• tribal Blocks on Attitudinal Aspects.
• Attitudinal Training 20000 teachers in 87
  Blocks with high tribal concentration were
  trained up by the 350 MTs. The focal theme of the
  training was
• -Understanding tribal children,
• -Learning theories of language
• -Mother tongue education,
• -Addressing bilingual classroom,
• -Using folklore/local knowledge for language
  TLM,
• -Motivation of tribal children,
• -Attitude and behaviour of teachers in tribal
  area school
• -Integrating natural learning with school
  learning
• -Tribal society as the source of school
  development
• -Specific role of BRC and CRC in high tribal
  areas
• Reflection
• The need for preparation of tribal bilingual
  primers was emerged from the teacher training.
  The process was initiated with the effective
  teachers. First step was tapping the language
  resources/folklore of the tribal community Need
  identification of teachers led to need
  identification of tribal children by the
  teachers under attitudinal training.

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DPEP Interventions
Process I 1998-2001

• Teachers from tribal communities were trained on
  how to write primers
• They were made to know how and why to
  prepare the primers.
• Cultural context of each tribe was the
  foundation of the text.
• Senior tribal students participated in the
  content making process actively. Community
  participation was encouraging in getting
  language materials for primers. (in six
  languages Saora, Koya, Bonda, Kui, Kuvi and
  Juang)

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DPEP Interventions
Process I 1998-2001

• Preparation of Primers
• Training was imparted to the teachers on
  preparation of cultural primer
• Teachers were made to know that village is the
  first source of knowledge
• Experience of the children is the foundation of
  constructing knowledge
• Oral tales, songs, folk games, riddles and
  pictures have learning potentialities in which
  childrens experience can be presented as a
  text
• MT is important since it is the language of
  thought
• Children see the world in their own language
• Aim of language learning is not to write but
  to understand it in its context with meaning
• Non contextual text or using a a language
  other than MT in the class room dont help
  the children in their cognitive development
• Language helps cognition
• Llearning in MT leads to learn second language
  effectively
• Children have their own choice in selecting
  the texts( Likes and dislikes)
• Children create new text given them a context

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DPEP Interventions
Achievements 2000 Onwards

• In the year 2000-2002, 63000 tribal children
  were provided with tribal primers
  supported with
• Picture Dictionary,
• Teachers Handbook,
• Conversational chart
• Self learning materials for teachers, and
• Language training module for non- tribal teacher
• In 2004-5 academic years about 100,000 tribal
  children were provided the same materials.
• Adoption of Cluster approach to tribal
  education (CATE) in2005-06

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DPEP Interventions
Process I 1998-2001

• Jati Mahasabha
• Tapping Community resources- Jati Mahasabha-
  for ensuring access and enrollment of
  children and stopping teacher absenteeism and
  intervening in school management, and
  putting pressure on education officers for
  providing teachers, infrastructure,
  supervision, TLM, strengthening ST, SC and woman
  in (VEC and MTA)
• Tribal youth as community mobilize In 800
  Gram Panchayat, tribal educated youths were
  engaged on contractual basis as youth educator/
  community mobilizes to ensure access of all
  children in the GP, conducting parental
  counseling and VEC, MTA meeting, helping
  the teachers in preparing tribal language
  materials, and coordinating with the CRC and
  PRI members Sarpanch.
• Results Hike of 4 ST and 3 SC
  enrollment in the Blocks
• Achievements Enrollment of 13520 ST girls in
  396 kanyashrams in KBK Districts.

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Reflections

• Participation of tribal children in classroom
  is active in using MT .
• Children perceive the text from their past
  experience/own way.
• Children attach new meaning to the text and
  interpret with their logic
• Children can create new texts from their
  own cultural context
• Teachers could know that local knowledge is
  the foundations for the children in her
  early education
• Teachers in tribal areas took much interest
  in addressing tribal children from their
  socio-cultural context
• Teachers could know that tribal language and
  folklore are the best source to educate
  the children
• Teaching in bilingual classroom is more
  challenging than in mono-lingual
  situation
• Teachers associated the experience of the
  children with the text book knowledge

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Reflections

• Community interest in teaching Saora, Kuvi
  and Juang primer was amazing.
• They were taking active part in classroom
  transaction and were suggesting
• the teachers .
• The myth that tribal language and folklore
  is not important in view of educating the
  children in the classroom was broken.
• Children could get their freedom of
  thinking, speaking and learning in their
  language and environment.
• Access and retention of tribal children
  after using primer in MT was increased.
• Major tribal community now want to demand the
  government to introduce tribal language in
  schools.
• The Santal community want to use their primer
  in ol-chiki script.

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Gaps

• The effectiveness of using these primers is yet
  to be assessed .
• Post Training activities were poor
• Contextually of effective teaching and
  learning was missing due to lack of academic
  support
• One time training of teachers on tribal issues
  was not sufficient.
• The experience gathered by the teachers were
  not given importance since it was an
  experiment.
• Lack of State institutional support and sustained
  efforts for establishing tribal education in
  teacher education
• Perception of decision makers differ from time to
  time, for which there is a lack of sustained
  support at the policy level

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Gaps

• Traditional school Inspectors, non- tribal
  teachers are apathetic to tribal education and
  their superior mindset do not allow them to
  accept that education of tribal children need
  special attention.
• The Growing interest of teachers could not be
  continued due to lack of sustained efforts
• Community were not oriented on use of primers,
  so there was a mixed reaction to adopt it.
• DPEP or SSA project have not been
  institutionalized to replicate and sustain them
  in the State system.

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Experiential Learning At its best
Erai Erai. Obang.. (Come my friend)
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Thank You
Prepared and Presented By Dr. Mahendra Kumar
Mishra mkmfolk_at_gmail.com