in a nearby government school and are allowed to sit in the government school to write the government exams. Another example of provincial government support is that MTB MLE students receive a government syllabus and books without charge.
When did the programme begin and how did it develop?
In 2000 the Parkari Community Development Programme( PCDP) initiated an MTB MLE pilot programme for the Parkari language community. People from the community attended writers’ workshops where they developed graded reading materials in the MT. Programme leaders also held workshops to train teachers and to train village committees to take responsibility for their local school. Five schools were initiated in the Parkari pilot programme.
In 2001 the Kachhi Community Development Association( KCDA) developed materials in their language and opened a pilot school in the Kachhi community.
In 2007, Thradari and Dhatki leaders began mobilizing their communities for MTB MLE and developing MT materials. In 2010 each group opened a pilot school in their language areas.
The PCDP now has 29 MTB MLE schools; the KCDA has 16 schools and the TCDO and DCDP have one school each. PCDP students begin MTB MLE in Kindergarten and continue through Grade 8. KCDA, TCDO and DCDP schools go from Kindergarten to Grade 5.
PCDP and KCDA have now moved well beyond the pilot stage. TCDO and DCDP are finishing their pilot programmes and preparing to expand to new schools. Leaders of the two Marwari programmes are currently creating MT materials and doing community awareness to initiate their MTB MLE programmes.
MTB MLE RESOURCE KIT Including the Excluded: Promoting Multilingual Education
In response to the request from communities for MTB MLE, PCDP has also started community self-help schools. These schools have a specific MT focus but the transfer to Sindhi, the first official school language, takes place more quickly. It is done this way because it is hard to find funding for a full five-year primary school. Because the students who completed their MTB MLE education were so successful in further schooling, PCDP has added a MT foundation to their self-help schools. Village adult education centres are following this same pattern.
How do you develop MTB MLE curriculum and classroom materials?
Government schools in Sindh province require students to learn three languages. The first language is Sindhi, the official language of Sindh province. The second is Urdu, the national language of Pakistan and the third is English. MTB MLE schools teach the students’ MT as the first language so students learn four languages before finishing primary school.
MT literacy workers, with technical support from SIL International literacy specialists and consultants, developed the curriculum for the MTB MLE schools. The curriculum is based on the government syllabus for each grade but adds MTB MLE-specific learning outcomes matched to
4