Doctrine divides, Action unites

 

  July 2014

 

Mother Tongue Education: The Foundation of Tharu Children Learning in School

Shree Ram Chaudhary
 


Shree Ram Chaudhary, center, visits a classroom of Tharu primary
school students in Nepal, who find it difficult to learn when they
are taught in a language that is not their mother tongue.

There are some concepts which view identity only as a outlook, but one’s identity is not just an abstract sentiment, for the lack of an identity affects the physical life of people. In Nepal, the struggle of the ethnic people for their right to their identity is not just related to saving their language and culture; it is also related to the lifestyle and future of the people. It is for this reason that it is not relevant to put the demands of identity inside the box of raw sentiment.

I have been observing, for instance, the school life of the Tharu children in Nepal since my childhood in Dang District. More than 32 percent of the people speak the Tharu language, but no schools have taught in the Tharu language in the past. There are many obstacles to learning for these ethnic children. On one hand, the schools are far from the home of the Tharu students; on the other hand, the language of instruction is Nepali. Consequently, the Tharu children have gone to school but couldn’t understand anything. How could they learn? Naturally, the schools could not attract the children to attend. One year the children went to school, and the next year they dropped out.

The same learning environment exists in the other ethnic communities of Nepal as well. There is a vast difference between the Nepali and Tharu languages. How can the ethnic children compete properly? There is little wonder that these children leave the education system in Nepal prematurely without finishing their education. As a result, they become domestic child labor for their own families or others. It is the overall reality of life of ethnic children in Nepal. Because of the language barrier, the children of Nepal’s ethnic communities are rarely found in the country’s schools.

The effects of children dropping out of school at an early age contributes a negative impact on the national life of the country. The data of the Education Ministry indicates that the dropout rate of ethnic children is far too high in Nepal. If 10 Tharu children and 10 Nepali-speaking children enrolled in the same school, for instance, at least nine Nepali-speaking children will complete high school while only one or two Tharu children will complete their high school education. When Tharu children drop out of high school, how then can they enroll in university and get a higher education? This example explains why students from the Bramin and Chhetri castes normally get a university degree. They can then easily get jobs as a government officer or work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including international NGOs. The employment choices of Tharu children who drop out from school early are to become porters, unskilled workers and daily laborers to earn a living. It thus creates a large economic gap between Nepali-speaking and non-Nepali-speaking children.

The latest data revels that only 52 percent of the people in the country speak Nepali (the Khash language). Consequently, for 48 percent of the people in Nepal, their mother tongue is one of the country’s more than 120 ethnic languages that is much different than Nepali. There are many intelligent children among this 48 percent of the country’s population, but their intelligence is never nurtured due to the language barrier. It is unfortunate for the country and its development. As a result, only 52 percent of Nepal’s human resources have been receiving the knowledge and skills that they need. Although the government has declared that education is for all children, this declaration is not sufficient.

Now the people of Nepal are beginning to raise their voice for the federal government to respect their identity. One conclusion of this push for respect for everyone’s identity is to give opportunities to children to study in their own mother tongue. Studying in one’s own language is not just about one’s self-interest and rights, for it impacts people’s lives and choices; it creates dignified and conscious citizens of the State. Without this right, people become unskilled laborers or even criminals. This potentially poor outcome is why the demands of one’s identity are not only for cultural rights: they are correlated with the economic and political rights of Nepal’s ethnic communities.


* Shree Ram Chaudhary is the program manager of the Society for Participatory Cultural Education (SPACE) in the Bardiya District of Nepal. He attended the first School of Peace (SOP) that Interfaith Cooperation Forum (ICF) held in Bangalore, India, in 2006.

 

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