'Let The Children Read In Own Language And Culture' funded by USAID All Children Reading Grant

ECo-Development (www.ecodevelopment.org), a non-profit and voluntary organization based in Bandarban hill district in CHT, has initiated the project ‘Let the children read in own language and culture’ with the objective to enhance reading skills of Indigenous children in their mother tongue. In the video clip, Ms. Masawang Marma conducting a teaching session on Marma language in her class at Rowangchari Model Primary School in Bandarban of Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh.

Chittagong Hill Tracts region in Bangladesh is home to eleven indigenous communities, each having their own distinct culture, religion and language. The conventional education system of Bangladesh does not respond to the specific learning needs of ethnic children, especially education in their mother tongue. Language and culture inappropriate education system; poor quality of teachers for creating child and culture friendly reading environment; and lack of control of the community people in children’s reading process are resulting in extreme poor learning levels of the ethnic children and high rate of pupil absenteeism and dropout. Study in 2011 found 88% of the ethnic children in Class III in government primary schools cannot satisfactorily read and comprehend at their grade level. In this situation, the project “Let the children read in own language and culture” is going to bring about a revolutionary breakthrough in Bandarban district toward improving reading competency of indigenous children in primary schools. The project has produced culture responsive and mother language based “Multi-lingual education (MLE)” materials for indigenous children and made them available in 125 primary schools.