‘Tribals need quality education with joyful learning’

Despite tall claims by the State and the Central Governments about impressive achievements in literacy rate, reduction of dropouts, universal education is yet to reach many tribal children in the State, said speakers at a meeting here.

Tribal areas have been the most backward due to lack of proper planning and implementation. One of the problems in the tribal school is language and dialect barrier.

The tribal children are very comfortable with their mother tongues, but they don’t get the opportunity to get education in their mother tongues. Education in a stranger

language hardly motivates them to go to schools. It is in this context that the tribal leaders have been reasonably demanding mother-tongue-based education for the tribal kids, they opined. “Researches have shown that when children start their pre-schools in their mother tongue their brains grow faster and their ability to learn multiple languages too grow,” said eminent tribal leader Krishnan of Tamil Nadu at a meeting here.

According to Sarvoday leader Aditya Patnaik, an activist working in the tribal areas of Mayurbhanj district, the tribal children lose interest in teaching due to language barrier. They fail to understand their teachers and the teaching as they are not comfortable with other languages than their mother tongue, he added.

“The Government should introduce elementary education in their mother tongue so that the tribals will be inspired to go to schools,” he suggested.

Patnaik also attributed increasing drop-out rate of the tribal children from schools to their livelihood problem. Most of the tribal people depend on water, land, forest and its products, but the rapid industrialisation and lack of interest of the Government to give land rights to the tribals have pushed the aboriginal tribes to a corner.

They are now being increasingly de-homed and deprived of their source of livelihood. The tribals after losing their livelihood are migrating with their children to other States in search of jobs, which leads their kids’ drop-outs, he added.

“The tribals are being exploited due to lack of education. So, they should be equipped with quality education to prove their mettle,” Patnaik said, warning, “If the Government fails to provide quality education, they would obviously choose the way of violence to get their right.”

According to social activist Santosh Sah of Malkangiri, most of the teachers are not coming to the schools regularly. “If teachers do not come to school, what the parents would do,” he asked. In some areas, schools are situated at a long distance from the tribal hamlets. The tribal kids don’t show interest to go to the schools due to the

distance. During rainy season, the children stop going to school for rain,” said tribal from Gajapati district Shibu Raita.

According to activist Dillip Das from Kalahandi district, the teachers don’t come to the school regularly which disrupts the studies of the students. The school children start forgetting the studies due to regular interruptions, said Das and advocated for joyful teaching.Dilapidated school buildings often discourage the pupils to come to school. Due to nexus between the venal Government officials and contractors, the school infrastructure is poorly built. In some schools, inordinate delays are made to complete school buildings.

The school inspectors or district officials never come for inspection, said Das. Das also referred to the schools in Kalahandi district where a dismal situation prevails due to lack of seriousness of the Government for the education of the tribals.

Some tribal people love their livelihood and never think about the education of their children. As a result, they engage their children in domestic works. In some cases, the tribal mothers engage their elder children to look after the younger ones when they leave home for work outside. This creates hindrances in the education of the tribal children, said a few speakers.

Therefore, the Government and the Non-Government Organisations should motivate the tribal people to send their children to school. At the same time, the Government should devise well-coordinated plans to boost the livelihood of the tribals in a sustainable manner. Only shedding crocodile tears for the tribals without doing any remarkable work would not solve the purpose, said the Sarvoday leaders.