National and international organizations jointly sponsored the 5 th International Conference on Language and Education in 2016.
Supportive MTB MLE policy. Policy makers understand that successful and sustained MTB MLE requires a strong and supportive language and education policy. They begin with a carefully planned pilot project in a limited number of languages and schools and use the knowledge gained in that process to develop the long-term policy. In addition to the issues described in the paragraphs above, policy makers ensure that their national language and education policy includes these points:
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A clear statement of the school years that will be included in the programme: Beginning in Pre-primary( if possible) or Grade 1 and continuing to the end of the last year of primary school.
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A clear statement that after the pilot project is successfully completed, MTB MLE will be incorporated into the formal education system with a clear statement of responsibility for developing the expansion plan. 7
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Criteria for selecting the minority languages that will be used in the programme as it expands.
MTB MLE RESOURCE KIT Including the Excluded: Promoting Multilingual Education
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A clear statement regarding the rate of expansion after the pilot project( needed to guard against too-rapid expansion, which leads to loss of quality and programme death.)
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Identification of the department within the Ministry of Education that will have overall responsibility for MTB MLE.
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Clear directions to ensure that the necessary financial support will be available to implement and sustain the programme as it expands to new schools and new languages.
7 A resource for planning MTB MLE expansion can be found at http:// www. sil. org / sites / default / files / files / planning _ for _ mtb _ mle _ program _ expansion. pdf
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