Juangas demand mother tongue based pre-school education

BHUBANESWAR: Members of the Juanga Child Protection Committee (JCPC) organised pre-election meetings inviting contestants of panchayat election to support their demand of mother tongue based pre-school education.

Hundreds of Juanga women and men gather in the pre-election meetings to press their demands to support their claim of quality education for their children. For the first time the voters have organised pre-election meetings to press their demands among the contestants and seeking their commitment to the development needs as articulated by the adivasi communities instead of accepting the offers like free booze and money for group feasts from the contestants here.

About 12 pre-election interaction meetings were being organised between voters and candidates in the area. On 16th of February an open forum discussion was organised at Tala Champei in ‘Juangapidhi’ by the members of Child Right Protection Committee of TLC where the aspiring candidates were invited to clear their stand on the reasonable demands by the Juanga community members including the demand for mother tongue based early childhood education in the Anganwadi centers in the area.

The member of the Child Right Protection Committee and Founder Member of CLAP Bhaktabatshal Mohanty highlighted the need of mother tongue based education to the children below the age of 5years as it is easy for the children to learn in their own language. Kainta Juanga, a Juaga woman, stressed the need going by the fact that most of the parents are not literate in Odia language and find it difficult to support their children in their studies.

Speaking to the aspiring candidates Programme Manager of TLC Bhagirathi Mohanty stressed that once the Juanga verbal language get adopted in the local Anganwadi Centers the children of the area would feel at home while enabling their learning potentials. This would help them feel confident and improve their reasons which would ultimately help them continue their education in any language during later stage, he ended.