Embracing mother-tongue learning

Mugu, Nepal: Rajya Laxmi Rokaya and Sushmita Rokaya are almost always together. The two third-graders live just a few houses apart in Nigale, a small settlement perched on a hillside in Mugu District. They are part of a tight group of girls who spend most of their time in and out of school in each other’s company.

“We’re very similar,” says Rajya Laxmi by way of explanation. 

These similarities include an enthusiasm for studies; both girls are among the top performers in their grade at the Shree Himalaya Basic School.

And the shared enthusiasm has been newly stirred and strengthened thanks to a number of interventions that have changed the way they learn.

Shree Himalaya is one of the schools where UNICEF and its partner organization World Education have been advocating for mother tongue instruction in the early grades. In these parts, that means the local Khas-Nepali language, colloquially referred to as ‘Mugali’.

"It’s how the students first start to understand and communicate at home,” says teacher Karishma Shrestha. “It comes naturally.”

Indeed, for young children who are just learning to read, navigating between two languages can be very difficult. So, when classes were conducted in official Nepali, even the most diligent students like Sushmita and Rajya Laxmi struggled to keep up.

“It’s not how we talk at home or with our friends,” says Sushmita. She says that even though she enjoys her English and Nepali lessons, “it’s easier when our teacher explains things in our own language.”

Activities to improve the teaching and learning experience – and reduce the pressure on younger students – have been ongoing in Mugu and other districts. Focused on early grade learning through inclusive education for all children, the work has helped strengthen education in some of the most underserved areas of the country.

As part of these efforts, UNICEF and World Education have been training teachers, distributing reading materials, and engaging with school committees and parents in targeted districts to create better learning environments for children. This includes counselling teachers to increase use of local language in their classrooms.

According to principal Lok Bahadur Rokaya, the response from children has made it clear that this is the way to go.

“We can’t just give them books in a different language than what they are used to and expect them to understand,” he says.

He explains that this can have a negative impact on their psyche.

For added visual aid, along with using local words, teachers have also developed different toys that are more contextual, prompted by capacity building exercises conducted by UNICEF and World Education. In the classrooms at Shree Himalaya, for instance, one can find models of the notched ladders that are so common in households in the district, farming equipment, and charts detailing locally-available grains and seeds, among others.

Already as a direct result of the programme’s efforts – along with dialogues with local leaders on the issue – two municipalities in Mugu District have officially committed to mother tongue instruction in the early grades. This is a major accomplishment, given how research has shown that using mother tongue in the classroom is key to enhancing participation and cognition among children. UNICEF and partners will continue to advocate for similar decisions in as many other targeted districts as possible.

As far as Sushmita, Rajya Laxmi and their friends are concerned, getting to use their own language means they are enjoying lessons more than ever, everyone chiming in to answer the teacher’s questions.

“These children know so many things that are not in books, things that they see around them every day,” Lok Bahadur says.

“Just because it’s not written down in text doesn’t mean that knowledge is not important,” he adds.