In 2010 the Pashai established a five-year Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education( MTB BE) programme. There are, as yet, no government schools that implement a full MTB BE curriculum so the Pashai programme was established outside the formal education system. The programme is composed of two years of pre-primary classes followed by three years of after-school Pashai classes for children in Grades 1-3 in government primary schools. Children in the two-year pre-primary programme learn to read and write first in their MT and then in Pashto. Parents who enroll their children in the MTB BE programme must agree that the children will continue their education in primary school. The second part of the Pashai MLE programme begins when children enter Grade 1 and continues through Grade 3. Teachers in the MLE after-school classes use the MT to help students review the lessons from that day and complete their homework assignments. Teachers also help students build fluency in Pashai literacy.
The Pashai MTB BE programme has recently expanded to include five courses for boys in Laghman, a neighbouring province where the majority of people speak Pashto as their mother tongue. Pashai boys who complete MTB BE pre-primary begin Grade 1 with both Pashai- and Pashto-speaking students.
As noted above, the after-school courses continue to Grade 3. This fits with the educational system in Afghanistan: Grades 1, 2 and 3 have one teacher for all subjects but after Grade 3, students have different teachers for each subject.
Currently there are thirty Pashai MLE programmes for boys and twenty for girls in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces.
Pashai girls use their own language to learn in school. © Serve, Afghanistan
Booklet for Case Studies
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