NACDIP bats for mother-tongue based education for tribal children

OST Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Oct 4 :

“Non-formal pre-school education is one of the core services under the ICDS scheme, the National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) policy will strengthen and restructure the services further” said Dr. Krishnan, Convener, NACDIP Southern Region, speaking at a press conference here on Friday.

“We believe our advocacy work with the policy makers at the Central level will allow inclusion of a mother tongue based approach in the policy for the tribal children of the country. We appreciate the government’s initiative towards development of its marginal indigenous children.” said Dr. Jacob Thundyill ,National Convener ,NACDIP.

National Advocacy Council for the development of Indigenous People (NACDIP) is a national network of 192 tribal groups and 225 voluntary organizations representing 18 states of India.

NACDIP had been advocating inclusion of a special chapter for tribal children in the policy- which would be applicable in both scheduled and non-scheduled areas of India- while it was in its draft stage.

“We want to increase understanding on the importance of early childhood education as well as spread  awareness on the constitutional provisions pertaining to Early Childhood Education “said Ashwin, of Astha, Rajasthan.

“ Odisha is a step ahead of all states when it comes to provisions for the 1.4million tribal children of the state, it has already developed Naba-Arunima in ten tribal languages and aims to strengthen the process further.” said Badal Tah from the Odisha Adivasi Manch (OAM).

“With the new policy in place, it’s imperative for respective state governments in India to have separate plan of action of their own and see to it that tribal children en-cash on their right to quality  early childhood education” added Dr. Krishnan.