One mother from Chilhara MTB MLE School gave a speech in public during the school’ s Parents Day. She had never been to school herself but she was bold enough to speak in front of the people. This is what she said:
I never dreamt that my child would be able to read books in three languages. She can sing songs in our language but she can also sing Nepali songs and even few English songs. I am very happy about my child’ s progress and thankful for the MLE programme and all the teachers.
A government official’ s mid-term programme evaluation recognized the positive changes the MTB MLE programme has made in the community and in Rajbanshi children’ s education.
Now the Rajbanshi community is very aware about its linguistic as well as cultural identity and heritage. They have realized and are devoted to their children’ s education in their own MT. Of their own free will, they have donated acres of land for constructing the school building and are well engaged in the school management committee( SMC) … One of the notable impacts is that the rate of school dropout has remained constant at only 4 percent which can be the best lesson for the majority of schools in Nepal. 10
A final evaluation of the pilot project also recognized the importance of this programme. Here is what the evaluator wrote:
I am extremely impressed with the Rajbanshi MLE programme, which surpassed my expectations and offered many lessons that I will carry with me to MLE programmes in other countries. The positive impact of the programme on the three Rajbanshi schools and communities is very apparent, and I hope no one among the project team, the district education personnel or any other stakeholders in Nepal will allow the effect to stop at this small-scale level.
MTB MLE RESOURCE KIT Including the Excluded: Promoting Multilingual Education
What are your plans for the future?
The lessons learned in implementing the pilot can be adapted for other language communities in Nepal. However, the same approach of starting new community schools to implement an MTB MLE programme will not be considered and cannot be sustained unless government officials, teachers, school management committees and parents consider it worthwhile and incorporate MTB MLE into the government education system. Hopefully parents from other language communities in Nepal will, at some point, share the enthusiasm of parents whose children are in the Rajbanshi programme.
10 From the mid-term evaluation report on SIL language education and development( LEAD) Nepal, submitted to Social Welfare Council, Nepal, in 2014.
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