A Policy Analysis of
Support to Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: Component Formulation Mission (2006,United Nations Development Program-Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility
Borendra Lal Tripura,
Lecturer, AIUB.
Student, Monash Uni
1. Introduction
Educational policy analysis is a complex task which involves multidimensional issues that range from justifying its socio-political appropriateness to pedagogic compatibility. In doing a policy analysis, we have to consider the methodological frame-work of policy analysis, understanding the existing socio-cultural, eco-political, historical context, available resources and justification of the policy in the light of existing phenomena mentioned above. Support to Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: Component Formulation Mission (2006) (UNDP Mission Report) is the first ever education initiative undertaken in Bangladesh, which takes account of the socio-cultural distinctiveness of the ethnic minority communities of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), and which is consistent with the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, 1997 and Primary Education Development Program-II. This also takes World Declaration of Education for All (1990), Dakar Declaration (2000) and Rangamati Declaration (1998), National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (PRS) into account, all of which have great influence in the origin of the policy. UNDP Mission Report has proposed a multilingual education program in CHT with emphasis on ‘mother tongue’. However, I will, in this paper, analyze the UNDP Mission Report to explore its strengths, weaknesses and compatibility for CHT people. I will subsequently bring forward some recommendations for better and more sustainable initiatives to be included in future policies. Thus I am particularly emphasizing the policy context (socio-political and historical), content evaluation and advocacy in analyzing the policy.
2. Rationale and objectives
UNDP is undertaking a Multilingual Education (MLE) program to implement in CHT primary schools in the light of Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord (1997), which is the first ever and large-scale education program in CHT that recognizes the cultural, linguistic, geographical and socio-economic diversity of the region. The program will be based on the UNDP Mission Report (2006), which contains the education policy discourse in the form of policy text that will soon be seen as policy practice. Ball (1994a), in this regard, states that policy texts are ‘policy codes’, and ‘cannibalised products’, which carry the meaning representative of the struggle and conflict of their production. “Policy is text and action, words and deeds; it is what is enacted as well as what is intended” (Ball, 1994a, p.10). Riseborough (1992) posits that once the meaning is captured in policy documents they become the focus of secondary adjustment. That is why I am interested to analyze this Mission report with an especial focus on the policy evaluation to suggest secondary adjustments as this is one of the major interests of the ethnic minority people of CHT. Any inconsistence or inadequacy underpinning this project may contain significant future socio-economic and political implications for this region. So, I hope a policy analysis beforehand of its implementation will bring a clear insight into its impact, which may contribute in formulating advocatory measures for positive changes and justifications. Thus my objectives for this paper are unpacking the inconsistencies and inadequacies of the policy as well as to appraise its merits. Thus I intend to play an active role in the process of social construction.
3. Methodology
The approach I am adapting in analyzing the UNDP Mission Report is a discourse analysis, which is a qualitative research methodology. I will follow a discourse analysis methodology within the framework of social constructionist theory from the perspective of marginalized ethnic minority people of CHT, where I intend to reveal the merits, demerits and compatibility of the policy in line with equality and justice. Terre Blanche and Durrheim (1999), in this respect advised to “adopt a suspicious and politicized epistemological stance, and employ methodologies that allow the researcher to deconstruct versions of reality” (p.16). Wetherell (2001) pointed out, “Social scientists who study discourse have been interested in how people, groups and institutions mobilize meanings. How have some interpretations become dominant and whose interests do they serve” (p.14)? She has further contended that discourse constructs ‘a version of social reality’ (p.14). “Any one description competes with a range of alternatives and indeed some of these alternatives emerge” (Wetherell, 2001, p.16) through discourse. She has argued, ‘as discourse analysts, we have to ask the following questions,
Why this version or this utterance? What does it do? What does it accomplish here and now? And what does it tell us about the wider discursive economy or the politics of representation which influence what is available to be said and what can be heard? (p.17)
This clearly indicates that there is a space for critiquing any existing version of policy. Therefore, I intend to evaluate the ideological position of this version of policy in the domain of national education policy wit a view to find its justification as well as to explore the ‘other possible version’ (Wetherell, 2001, p.17). In relation to discourse analysis Fairclough and Wodak (1997) suggested an eight-point set of characteristics as follows,
1. CDA addresses social problems.
2. Power relations are discursive.
3. Discourse constitutes society and culture.
4. Discourse does ideological work.
5. Discourse is historical.
6. The link between texts and society is mediated.
7. Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory.
8. Discourse is a form of social action.
However, Scollon (2001) has argued that all contributors to the CDA may not take up all of those points and may add more to those. Depending on objective and purpose, some may take only a few points. I intend to employ points 3, 4, 7 and 8 for my objective. I will also draw on the concepts of policy as text developed by Ball (1994a). He explains that
“we can see policies as representations which are encoded in complex ways (via struggles, compromises, authoritative public interventions and reinterpretations) and decoded in complex ways (via actors’ interpretations and meanings in relation to their history, experiences, skills, resources and contexts” which are “typically the cannibalized products of multiple (but circumscribed) influences and agenda”. (p.16)
Ball (1994a) has further argued referring to Codd (1988) that
“policy is both contested and challenging, always in a state of ‘becoming’, of ‘was’ and ‘never was’ and ‘not quite’; ‘for any text a plurality of readers must necessarily produce a plurality of readings.” (p. 16)
I would try to explore the ‘context’, ‘influences’ and ‘agenda’ of the policy stated above in the following analysis with a view to evaluate the program below:
4. Analysis of the Policy
4.1 Policy context:
The context to which the UNDP Mission Report is relevant is the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh, which is situated in South-eastern part of Bangladesh. This region comprises three districts, which is an abode of thirteen ethnic minority peoples, who speak in ten distinct languages. The people of CHT are commonly known as Jummas or CHT Peoples. They have their own distinct culture, heritage and values which are different from the mainstream majority Bengali population. That is why they have together gone through a two-decade long political movement for self determination to protect their distinctiveness of language, culture and identity, which was ended in December 1997 through signing an agreement (Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, 1997) between the government and the local political party, Parbattya Chattagram Jono Songhoti Somity (PCJSS). One of the provisions of the agreement is implementing educational instruction in ‘mother tongue’ in the primary schools of CHT. The national government has decided in the Primary Education Development Program-II (2003) that a separate education planning will be initiated for the CHT and other indigenous peoples. That is why I am ardently interested to analyze the UNDP Mission Report to explore how suitable it is for the aspirations and future of the CHT people. The political context of CHT has significantly influenced the discourse of multilingual education and policy development for this kind of education program. The internal influence such as the two decade-long political movement, peace accord and the continuous demand for the implementation of the peace accord in the last ten years by the CHT people and civil society put a powerful pressure in creating the policy context. Similarly the external forces such as the Asian Development Bank, European Commission, DFID, CIDA, UNICEF, SIDA, NORAD, and some other donor agencies played a vital discursive role in policy production. They collectively exerted preconditions of separate education plan for CHT in the light of peace accord for their participations in development cooperation, which we can see in PRS and PEDP-II. The PRS emphasized that “it is necessary to provide education to adivasi/ethnic minority people with a curriculum that allows learning in their own language at the primary level” (PRS, p. 153). For PDEP-II the donor agencies agreed to contribute US$ 654.00 million which is 36.1% of the total budget (PEDP-II, p.5). We can find that “provision of quality education to tribal communities, including Tribal Development Plan” was adopted there (PEDP-II, p.5). The ‘authoritative public interventions and reinterpretations’ are also represented in the process of policy production as PEDP-II (which is a product of Ministry of Education of Bangladesh) approved the separate ‘Tribal Education Plan’ (PEDP-II, p. 5) and as a ‘joint agreement’ was signed between the national government and the UN donors in December, 2005 (UNDP Mission Report, 2006, p. 8). Thus the context, history and process of the policy production are participated, interpreted and compromised by ‘plurality of readers’.
4.2 Policy content:
Support to Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: Component Formulation Mission (2006) outlined the following areas for its reflections and interventions:
(i) Background, (ii) Justification for component interventions, (iii) Targeted beneficiaries, (iv) component intervention links to the PEDP II and PRS, (v) Links to components under UNDP CHTDF, (vi) Overall Development strategies, (vii) Expected end of component situation, (viii) Component development and immediate objectives, (ix) Overview of component by objective, output and activity. After general delineations of the nine aspects of the project, the document has also presented a comprehensive discussion of the objectives and the technical details of different components. However, UNDP Mission Report proposed the following overall objectives to be adapted in the project:
• Establish new schools: develop an infrastructure which will provide more children with access educational institutions, including pre-schools, primary and accelerated learning programs.
• Improve practice: Providing support for current programs to strengthen classroom practice with improved and updated teaching methodologies, additional materials, training and supervision.
• Provide teacher training and support: Provide extensive training opportunities for teachers and trainers though initial and in-service modular training programs.
• Mother tongue-based Multi-lingual Education (MLE): Develop curriculum content, teaching and learning materials, teaching methodologies appropriate to the language, culture and environment of the CHT within the framework of the national curriculum .
• Capacity building: Strengthen the human resources needed to plan, deliver and monitor education services especially those of local implementing partners and community organisations.
• Improve the management of educational activities at district, village and school level.
• Policy advocacy: changes in policy are required to ensure Education for All. (UNDP Mission Report, pp.5-6)
This document has, in one hand, envisaged a highly ambitious goal as to achieve a hundred percent enrolment which is the spirit of World Declaration of Education for All (1990) and Dakar Declaration (2000). It also aims at supporting quality education, which is explored in Primary Education Development Program-II (2003). This also quests for contributing in economic prosperity for the CHT people, which is convergent to the National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (2001) (PRS), all of which presented the rich policy ideology of the UNDP Mission Report, 2006. These wider policies have also been influential in the contexts of influence and of policy production exerting pressure on the government of Bangladesh to provide for minority groups’ cultural and linguistic survival. On the other hand, this document has also some limitations which I will discuss in the following section.
4.3 Policy Evaluation:
Like any other projects and mission, the UNDP Mission report has its strengths and limitations, which present discursive position of policy as social action. However the actions of the UNDP Mission Report, 2006 and its merits and limitations are analyzed below. The analysis presents a discussion of the history and nature of the policy revealing the discursive context of influences and policy production. The policy has not yet been implemented, so this context of practiced is not discussed.
4.3.1 Merits
As perceived, the project is quite a large scale initiative and the first ever undertaken for the development of primary education in CHT. This is the first project to recognize the ‘unique needs and diversity’ of the CHT which is the ground of the separate education planning for CHT. Thus it has captured the essence and spirit of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, 1997 and the Primary Education Development Program-II (2003). It also contends that “unless the programme adapts their interventions to the realities of the CHT and its people, the CHT will still remain behind in terms of quality and access to primary education” (UNDP Mission Report, p.5), which seems to be very true. CHT is an abode of thirteen ethnic indigenous communities who are different from the majority Bengali community in language, culture and heritage. The distinctiveness and diversity was never taken into account in formulation of education policy before. That is one of the major reasons why the “enrolment, literacy, and completion rates at primary and secondary levels of education are well below the national average” (UNDP Mission Report, p.5).
Generally it can be predicted that because of these component interventions, the rates of enrolment, quality of education and completion of primary education will be dramatically increased with long-term potential. In particular, MLE will be a revolutionary experience to the CHT people as it is one of their long-cherished aspirations. This will contribute a great deal in the maintenance and development of the minority languages. As language is a part of their culture and identity, this will assure them of survival and sustenance with their own distinctive identity to some extent. Consequently, this will lead to peace, harmony and stability in the region. Houlton and Willey (1982) argued in the same vein, as they stated that ‘positive responses to diversity’ and ‘encouraging bilingualism’ play a great role in racial harmony (p.17), because it will support the ‘self esteem and positive self image of the minority children. This approach of education will, hence, help to achieve greater harmonies in the CHT region, which underwent twenty six years of ethnic and political conflicts for the autonomy (a political system which will give them the power to preserve their own language, culture, heritage and identity) of the CHT people.
The UNDP Mission Report has also counted the geographical feature of CHT, which is fully mountainous, yet many parts are submerged under Kaptai Lake. Because of the geographical features children either have to “walk through the hilly terrain” for hours or “use the boats” (p.6). These are another significant facts of low enrolment in primary schools (14.6%). So, the government policy of setting up a school in ‘every two kilometers’ will not be effective and adequate in CHT context.
UNDP Mission Report has also contended that “Teaching is normally done in Bangla, a language alien to most of the young children from the indigenous communities. Local cultures and traditions are not respected within the curriculum” (UNDP Mission Report, p.6). This is another reason for the low rates of literacy in this region. In relation to this discourse of medium of instruction of child education, the Nobel laureate poet (1913) , Robindranath Tagore has also advocated that children should build the foundation of mother tongue before learning any other languages (widely used in Bangladesh, but I can’t give the reference here). The same voice is also heard from The UNESCO 1953 document, where it recommends, “In particular, pupils should begin their schooling through the medium of the mother tongue, because they understand it best and because to begin their school life in the mother tongue will make the break between home and school as small as possible” (Cited in Romaine, 1995, p. 20) The importance of teaching children in their mother tongue is also upheld in other influential pieces of legislation, the Directive of the Council of the European Community (Brussels/77486/EEC) as it instructs member states of the European Community to ‘take appropriate measures to promote the teaching of the mother tongue and the culture of the country of origin of the children of migrant workers, and also as part of the compulsory free education to teach one or more official languages of the host state” (cited in Romaine,1995, p.20).
All these facts clearly appeals to the opportunity of children having education in their mother tongue, which is necessary for their cognitive development and better understanding. This is the intrinsic spirit of the ‘universal education’ or ‘education for all’. The knowledge of ‘mother tongue’ also helps children in learning other language. Miller (1982) has given a vivid explanation of the linguistic aspect of how ‘mother tongue’ helps the children in education. He explained that because of the knowledge of the structure of mother tongue, children become more aware of structure of other languages, which scaffold the learning of other languages faster.
The competence of first language and second language makes the children bilinguals and being bilingual has many positive implications- linguistically, socially, economically and politically. Peal and Lambert (1962) found that bilingual children are intellectually superior to the monolinguals in terms of mental ability such as mental flexibility, concept formation, and diversified set of mental abilities. They have, of course, stated that they were not sure yet whether their superiority in intelligence is because of their bilingualism or they are bilingual because of their intelligence.
The UNDP Mission Report also noted that the diversity of language, culture and life style of CHT people “are not adequately addressed in the national textbooks, but [these] represented a way of life that is unfamiliar to the children” (UNDP Mission Report, p.7). But in contrast, all the educationists such as Baker (2006) and Child psychologists such as Piaget and Vygotsky; as well as the schema theory recommend to introduce content of education which are appropriate to the level of children’s age and schema. In this point UNDP has appropriately pointed to the right use of materials for children. The policy has argued that national language (Bangla) and international language (English) should be taught alongside the mother tongues, which are outmost necessities to succeed in life. Any education program must emphasize the future economic achievement and further education. Baker (2006) in this regard contends that an education program “needs to lead to economic and employment, social and cultural opportunities” (p.245).
Some other strengths I have found in the UNDP Mission Report are the measures of raising awareness, community mobilization (p.7) and community involvement (p.25, 27), allowance for flexibility in determining school holidays (p.9), issues of gender and ethnicity (p.18) etc. This project also aims at providing support to quality education (p. 48). Most importantly, it has expected that at the end of the program “The Government of Bangladesh will have policies in place that recognize the unique situation of the CHT education system” (UNDP Mission Report, p.13).
The greatest merit and strength of UNDP project is it will be leaving a foot-print in the history of Bangladesh for the education of CHT children by setting an example, by opening the eyes of the government and the people, by raising awareness among the people, by building the capacity of the local authorities, by training the teachers and by preparing teaching materials, books and dictionaries in the minority languages. It can be seen how important external influences like UNDP, ADB, EC, CIDA, DFID, UNICEF, NORAD etc. have been in this policy.
4.3.2 Limitations:
Despite having the above-mentioned revolutionary and historical positive aspects of the UNDP Mission Report for CHT primary education, it has some weaknesses and limitations too like other projects. These weaknesses are nature of the project rather than weaknesses. However, the UNDP Mission report invokes some confusion and questions, e.g. what does multi-lingual education (MLE) precisely mean, does it mean that the children will receive education instruction in national language, mother tongue, English and other languages; how effective are the training strategies mentioned in the policy, how long is UNDP CHTDF going to support the ‘project’, what does it recommend about the issue of ‘proxy teachers’ (p.6) etc.
In page 11, it is mentioned that the project is primarily proposed for 5 years with a potential of extension for another 5 years (If further funds are secured). As both projects- PEDP-II and UNDP Mission Report based project are intending to run for five years, the potentials of the great achievements will be endangered. In contrast to this option, any permanent phenomena such as ethnic diversity, linguistic and cultural pluralism of a country should be permanently addressed with constitutional guarantee, which is even necessary for a modern, stable, peaceful, harmonious and prosperous nation. I would, therefore, advocate for a “flexible and diversified education that would take the social and regional variety of the nation into account…with broad spirit of justice” (Pozzi-Escot, 1981 cited in Hornberger, 1988, p.23) which captures the spirit of Peru’s Education Reform (1972). We can also draw on the examples of the Indian constitution and the education acts of USA, in this regards. Annamalai (2001) delineates from Indian Constitution that “Article 29(a) provides the right for any section of the citizens to conserve its language, script or culture” (p.127). “Article 30 provides the rights for the linguistic minorities…to establish and administer educational institutions” (p127), which is further strengthened through VIIIth amendment as Article 350A which says, “provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups” (p.128). USA also provides especial education acts for the language and education of its minority peoples, such Native American Languages Act (1992), Indian Education Act (1972), No Child is Left Behind (2001). The same measures could be taken in Bangladesh.
The document does not provide any elaborate explanation of MLE, but it emphasizes that CHT children should have education in their ‘mother tongue’, Bangla and English. It does not clarify whether all the three languages will be used as mediums of instruction or not. If mother tongue and Bangla are used as mediums of instruction and English is taught as a subject, then I presume that the nature of the education system is bilingual education for the individual children. But as children of multiple language backgrounds are studying in the same school (in many cases), the program will be multilingual for the school. Within this clarification and principles, this education program can be described as MLE.
If this is the reality, I do advocate defining it as a heritage language bilingual education program. Theoretically, introducing a language based education program only in primary schools can not be expected to be fully successful, because within five years of education in the early stages of life, children can not master two languages in full competence. In this case the pulse of this education program is of a heritage language bilingual education, where it is aimed at maintaining and preserving the home language(s) of the children with a pathway to development, which has multiple implications.
Another striking limitation of this project is its policy of teacher training, which is fully aiming into a short-term goal without shedding light into long-term planning. As I perceived, the training program is very short and inadequate. It proposes that “initially trainers will be selected from the local NGO” (p.33) for ‘training of trainers (ToT)’ program who will receive training in four phases, such as ToT 1- 15 days, ToT 2- 8 days, ToT 3- 5 days and ToT 4- 5 days. There is no doubt that local NGOs are playing vital roles in the development of CHT, but my questions are how a short training will enable the NGO staffs to play the role of ‘Teacher Trainers’? How would the local school teachers view and accept them as their trainers? What will happen to the teacher training after the 5 years project? I would describe one of my findings in this regards. A primary school teacher told me a few years earlier that he attended some teacher-training conducted by one NGO and subsequently commented, “What the fellows will teach us about teaching! They do not even have a single day’s experience of teaching kids in school! Nonetheless, we go to the training, because they provide us a very good meal and 100 taka (Bangladeshi currency) allowance.” If this is the view of the teachers about the trainers, I doubt about its effectiveness and success. Nonetheless, a new program like MLE has no alternative to this approach. What I want to advocate is that UNDP should focus on strengthening the existing Primary Teacher Training Institute alongside the short-term package deal approach (the 5 year funding). This will be more beneficial for the long-term sustenance of MLE in CHT, which the teachers would also accept with respect. This project is also not addressing how the issue of ‘proxy teacher’ should be solved, though it is diagnosed as an existing problem in CHT primary education.
4. Recommendations
“Texts carry with them possibilities and constraints, contradictions and spaces. The reality of policy in practice depends upon the compromises and accommodations to these in particular settings” (Bowe, Ball & Gold, 1992, p.15). On the basis of the problems and strengths identified in the analysis of policy above, the following points of policy advocacy are recommended to be incorporated in the UNDP project of CHT primary education program (MLE) for necessary adjustments:
(i) Either multilingual education (MLE) should be understood as following the principles of bilingual education or it should be termed as a heritage language bilingual education (HLBE).
(ii)The Primary Teacher Training Institute (PTI) located in Rangamati Hill District should be strengthened by incorporating a component of heritage language bilingual education; hiring appropriate experts to run the training program and by providing sufficient resources and funding.
(iii) There should be a school every one kilometer in the areas of demographic concentration in CHT.
(iv) Teachers should be posted by policy in the nearest schools to their residence or village.
(v) Govt. should be generous to recognizing the multiculturalism and multilingualism of the country and should begin incorporating it in the constitution to open a long-term and sustainable education for the ethnic minority people, as does the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the rights and protection of the minority peoples’ language and culture.
(iv) Necessary education acts should be passed in the national parliament for the CHT and other minority people of Bangladesh similar to Native American Languages Act (1992) of USA; Indian Education Act (1972) of USA; No Child is Left Behind (2001) of USA.
5. Conclusion
Support to Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: Component Formulation Mission (2006) of United Nations Development Program-Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility is the first ever practical initiative to introduce the ‘mother tongue’ of the ethnic minority children of CHT in the local primary schools. In this sense, this is going to be a landmark initiative in the history of Bangladesh in general and in the history of the CHT people in general. If this is successfully implemented, the rate of enrolment in schools and the quality of the education could be predicted to be increased. It will at the same time, awaken the CHT people with charm, curiosity and compulsion, which will elicit spontaneous community support for the program. As a consequence, the threshold of the maintenance and development of the of the minority people will begin, which will contribute in achieving political harmony to some extent through increasing the self esteem of the CHT people and by assuring the survival and sustenance of their distinctiveness of languages and cultures which carry the ideological perspective of the policy. Because of this program, children will benefit both cognitively and academically. Thomas and Collier (1997) found the same pulse in their eight years long research over 700,000 school records of 42,317 students in minority children in the USA using ‘mother tongue’ in their early education. But as some limitations are diagnosed in the policy paper of the UNDP project, necessary steps should be taken to address them for better success and long-term benefits, which is provides the spaces of ‘other version’ and ‘policy development’. Simultaneously, UNDP, the local authority and the community will have to face substantial challenges in various aspects, as this is a new and dynamic project. So, sincere cooperation among all the stakeholders will be needed for the larger success of the program.
9.Bibliography:
Annamalai, E. (2001), Managing Multilingualism in India: Political and Linguistic Manifestations. In S. Udaya Narayana & G. Probal (Series Eds.), Language and Development, Vol. 8, New Delhi, Thousand Oak and London: Sage Publication
Baker, C. (2006), Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. In H. Nancy H. and B. Collin (Series Eds.), Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Vol. 54, Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto, Sydney: Multicultural Matters Ltd.
Ball, S. (1994a), Education Reform: A Critical and Post-Structural Approach. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press
Bowe, R., Ball, S. & Gold, A. (1992), Reforming Education and Changing Schools: case studies in policy sociology. London: routledge
Dakar Declaration (2000),
Fairclough, N. and Wodak, R. (1997), Critical discourse analysis, in T. van Dijk (ed.), Discourse studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. V. 2. London: Sage, pp. 258-84
Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, 1997
Government Document (2003), Primary Education Development Program II (PEDP-II). Dhaka: Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Bangladesh.
Hornberger (1988), Bilingual Education and Language Maintenance: A Southern Peruvian Quechua Case. Dordrecht: Foris Publications
Houlton and Willey (1983), Supporting Bilingual children’s bilingualism. York: Longman.
Miller, J (1982), How do you spell Gujrati, sir? In Alan James and Robert Jeffcoate (eds.), The Schools in the Multicultural society. Harper and Row
Government Document (2001), National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction.
Peal, E and Lambert, W.E. (1962), Relation of bilingualism to intelligence. In Psychological Monographs, Vol. 76, pp. 1-23
Rangamati Declaration (1998)
Riseborough, G. (1992), Primary Headship, State Policy and Challenges of the 1990s. In Journal of Education Policy. Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 123-42
Romaine, S. (1995), Bilingualism. Malden, Oxford, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing
Scollon, R. (2001), Mediated Discourse. The Nexus of Practice. London: Routledge
Terre Blanche, M. & Durrheim, K. (eds.), (1999), Histories of present: social science research in context; Research in Practice. In Applied Methods for Social Sciences. University of Cape Town Press. pp. 1-16
Thomas, W. and Collier, V. (1997), School Effectiveness for Language Minority Students. Conference Paper (presented in American Anthropological Association in 1997)
UNDP-CHTDF (2006), Support to Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: Component Formulation Mission
Wetherell, (2001), Foundations and Building Blocks. In Wetherell, Taylor and Yates (2001) (eds.) Discourse Theory and Practice-A Reader. London: Sage Publication. pp 9-13
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Support to Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: Component Formulation Mission (2006,United Nations Development Program-Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility
Borendra Lal Tripura,
Lecturer, AIUB.
Student, Monash Uni
1. Introduction
Educational policy analysis is a complex task which involves multidimensional issues that range from justifying its socio-political appropriateness to pedagogic compatibility. In doing a policy analysis, we have to consider the methodological frame-work of policy analysis, understanding the existing socio-cultural, eco-political, historical context, available resources and justification of the policy in the light of existing phenomena mentioned above. Support to Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: Component Formulation Mission (2006) (UNDP Mission Report) is the first ever education initiative undertaken in Bangladesh, which takes account of the socio-cultural distinctiveness of the ethnic minority communities of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), and which is consistent with the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, 1997 and Primary Education Development Program-II. This also takes World Declaration of Education for All (1990), Dakar Declaration (2000) and Rangamati Declaration (1998), National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (PRS) into account, all of which have great influence in the origin of the policy. UNDP Mission Report has proposed a multilingual education program in CHT with emphasis on ‘mother tongue’. However, I will, in this paper, analyze the UNDP Mission Report to explore its strengths, weaknesses and compatibility for CHT people. I will subsequently bring forward some recommendations for better and more sustainable initiatives to be included in future policies. Thus I am particularly emphasizing the policy context (socio-political and historical), content evaluation and advocacy in analyzing the policy.
2. Rationale and objectives
UNDP is undertaking a Multilingual Education (MLE) program to implement in CHT primary schools in the light of Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord (1997), which is the first ever and large-scale education program in CHT that recognizes the cultural, linguistic, geographical and socio-economic diversity of the region. The program will be based on the UNDP Mission Report (2006), which contains the education policy discourse in the form of policy text that will soon be seen as policy practice. Ball (1994a), in this regard, states that policy texts are ‘policy codes’, and ‘cannibalised products’, which carry the meaning representative of the struggle and conflict of their production. “Policy is text and action, words and deeds; it is what is enacted as well as what is intended” (Ball, 1994a, p.10). Riseborough (1992) posits that once the meaning is captured in policy documents they become the focus of secondary adjustment. That is why I am interested to analyze this Mission report with an especial focus on the policy evaluation to suggest secondary adjustments as this is one of the major interests of the ethnic minority people of CHT. Any inconsistence or inadequacy underpinning this project may contain significant future socio-economic and political implications for this region. So, I hope a policy analysis beforehand of its implementation will bring a clear insight into its impact, which may contribute in formulating advocatory measures for positive changes and justifications. Thus my objectives for this paper are unpacking the inconsistencies and inadequacies of the policy as well as to appraise its merits. Thus I intend to play an active role in the process of social construction.
3. Methodology
The approach I am adapting in analyzing the UNDP Mission Report is a discourse analysis, which is a qualitative research methodology. I will follow a discourse analysis methodology within the framework of social constructionist theory from the perspective of marginalized ethnic minority people of CHT, where I intend to reveal the merits, demerits and compatibility of the policy in line with equality and justice. Terre Blanche and Durrheim (1999), in this respect advised to “adopt a suspicious and politicized epistemological stance, and employ methodologies that allow the researcher to deconstruct versions of reality” (p.16). Wetherell (2001) pointed out, “Social scientists who study discourse have been interested in how people, groups and institutions mobilize meanings. How have some interpretations become dominant and whose interests do they serve” (p.14)? She has further contended that discourse constructs ‘a version of social reality’ (p.14). “Any one description competes with a range of alternatives and indeed some of these alternatives emerge” (Wetherell, 2001, p.16) through discourse. She has argued, ‘as discourse analysts, we have to ask the following questions,
Why this version or this utterance? What does it do? What does it accomplish here and now? And what does it tell us about the wider discursive economy or the politics of representation which influence what is available to be said and what can be heard? (p.17)
This clearly indicates that there is a space for critiquing any existing version of policy. Therefore, I intend to evaluate the ideological position of this version of policy in the domain of national education policy wit a view to find its justification as well as to explore the ‘other possible version’ (Wetherell, 2001, p.17). In relation to discourse analysis Fairclough and Wodak (1997) suggested an eight-point set of characteristics as follows,
1. CDA addresses social problems.
2. Power relations are discursive.
3. Discourse constitutes society and culture.
4. Discourse does ideological work.
5. Discourse is historical.
6. The link between texts and society is mediated.
7. Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory.
8. Discourse is a form of social action.
However, Scollon (2001) has argued that all contributors to the CDA may not take up all of those points and may add more to those. Depending on objective and purpose, some may take only a few points. I intend to employ points 3, 4, 7 and 8 for my objective. I will also draw on the concepts of policy as text developed by Ball (1994a). He explains that
“we can see policies as representations which are encoded in complex ways (via struggles, compromises, authoritative public interventions and reinterpretations) and decoded in complex ways (via actors’ interpretations and meanings in relation to their history, experiences, skills, resources and contexts” which are “typically the cannibalized products of multiple (but circumscribed) influences and agenda”. (p.16)
Ball (1994a) has further argued referring to Codd (1988) that
“policy is both contested and challenging, always in a state of ‘becoming’, of ‘was’ and ‘never was’ and ‘not quite’; ‘for any text a plurality of readers must necessarily produce a plurality of readings.” (p. 16)
I would try to explore the ‘context’, ‘influences’ and ‘agenda’ of the policy stated above in the following analysis with a view to evaluate the program below:
4. Analysis of the Policy
4.1 Policy context:
The context to which the UNDP Mission Report is relevant is the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh, which is situated in South-eastern part of Bangladesh. This region comprises three districts, which is an abode of thirteen ethnic minority peoples, who speak in ten distinct languages. The people of CHT are commonly known as Jummas or CHT Peoples. They have their own distinct culture, heritage and values which are different from the mainstream majority Bengali population. That is why they have together gone through a two-decade long political movement for self determination to protect their distinctiveness of language, culture and identity, which was ended in December 1997 through signing an agreement (Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, 1997) between the government and the local political party, Parbattya Chattagram Jono Songhoti Somity (PCJSS). One of the provisions of the agreement is implementing educational instruction in ‘mother tongue’ in the primary schools of CHT. The national government has decided in the Primary Education Development Program-II (2003) that a separate education planning will be initiated for the CHT and other indigenous peoples. That is why I am ardently interested to analyze the UNDP Mission Report to explore how suitable it is for the aspirations and future of the CHT people. The political context of CHT has significantly influenced the discourse of multilingual education and policy development for this kind of education program. The internal influence such as the two decade-long political movement, peace accord and the continuous demand for the implementation of the peace accord in the last ten years by the CHT people and civil society put a powerful pressure in creating the policy context. Similarly the external forces such as the Asian Development Bank, European Commission, DFID, CIDA, UNICEF, SIDA, NORAD, and some other donor agencies played a vital discursive role in policy production. They collectively exerted preconditions of separate education plan for CHT in the light of peace accord for their participations in development cooperation, which we can see in PRS and PEDP-II. The PRS emphasized that “it is necessary to provide education to adivasi/ethnic minority people with a curriculum that allows learning in their own language at the primary level” (PRS, p. 153). For PDEP-II the donor agencies agreed to contribute US$ 654.00 million which is 36.1% of the total budget (PEDP-II, p.5). We can find that “provision of quality education to tribal communities, including Tribal Development Plan” was adopted there (PEDP-II, p.5). The ‘authoritative public interventions and reinterpretations’ are also represented in the process of policy production as PEDP-II (which is a product of Ministry of Education of Bangladesh) approved the separate ‘Tribal Education Plan’ (PEDP-II, p. 5) and as a ‘joint agreement’ was signed between the national government and the UN donors in December, 2005 (UNDP Mission Report, 2006, p. 8). Thus the context, history and process of the policy production are participated, interpreted and compromised by ‘plurality of readers’.
4.2 Policy content:
Support to Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: Component Formulation Mission (2006) outlined the following areas for its reflections and interventions:
(i) Background, (ii) Justification for component interventions, (iii) Targeted beneficiaries, (iv) component intervention links to the PEDP II and PRS, (v) Links to components under UNDP CHTDF, (vi) Overall Development strategies, (vii) Expected end of component situation, (viii) Component development and immediate objectives, (ix) Overview of component by objective, output and activity. After general delineations of the nine aspects of the project, the document has also presented a comprehensive discussion of the objectives and the technical details of different components. However, UNDP Mission Report proposed the following overall objectives to be adapted in the project:
• Establish new schools: develop an infrastructure which will provide more children with access educational institutions, including pre-schools, primary and accelerated learning programs.
• Improve practice: Providing support for current programs to strengthen classroom practice with improved and updated teaching methodologies, additional materials, training and supervision.
• Provide teacher training and support: Provide extensive training opportunities for teachers and trainers though initial and in-service modular training programs.
• Mother tongue-based Multi-lingual Education (MLE): Develop curriculum content, teaching and learning materials, teaching methodologies appropriate to the language, culture and environment of the CHT within the framework of the national curriculum .
• Capacity building: Strengthen the human resources needed to plan, deliver and monitor education services especially those of local implementing partners and community organisations.
• Improve the management of educational activities at district, village and school level.
• Policy advocacy: changes in policy are required to ensure Education for All. (UNDP Mission Report, pp.5-6)
This document has, in one hand, envisaged a highly ambitious goal as to achieve a hundred percent enrolment which is the spirit of World Declaration of Education for All (1990) and Dakar Declaration (2000). It also aims at supporting quality education, which is explored in Primary Education Development Program-II (2003). This also quests for contributing in economic prosperity for the CHT people, which is convergent to the National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (2001) (PRS), all of which presented the rich policy ideology of the UNDP Mission Report, 2006. These wider policies have also been influential in the contexts of influence and of policy production exerting pressure on the government of Bangladesh to provide for minority groups’ cultural and linguistic survival. On the other hand, this document has also some limitations which I will discuss in the following section.
4.3 Policy Evaluation:
Like any other projects and mission, the UNDP Mission report has its strengths and limitations, which present discursive position of policy as social action. However the actions of the UNDP Mission Report, 2006 and its merits and limitations are analyzed below. The analysis presents a discussion of the history and nature of the policy revealing the discursive context of influences and policy production. The policy has not yet been implemented, so this context of practiced is not discussed.
4.3.1 Merits
As perceived, the project is quite a large scale initiative and the first ever undertaken for the development of primary education in CHT. This is the first project to recognize the ‘unique needs and diversity’ of the CHT which is the ground of the separate education planning for CHT. Thus it has captured the essence and spirit of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, 1997 and the Primary Education Development Program-II (2003). It also contends that “unless the programme adapts their interventions to the realities of the CHT and its people, the CHT will still remain behind in terms of quality and access to primary education” (UNDP Mission Report, p.5), which seems to be very true. CHT is an abode of thirteen ethnic indigenous communities who are different from the majority Bengali community in language, culture and heritage. The distinctiveness and diversity was never taken into account in formulation of education policy before. That is one of the major reasons why the “enrolment, literacy, and completion rates at primary and secondary levels of education are well below the national average” (UNDP Mission Report, p.5).
Generally it can be predicted that because of these component interventions, the rates of enrolment, quality of education and completion of primary education will be dramatically increased with long-term potential. In particular, MLE will be a revolutionary experience to the CHT people as it is one of their long-cherished aspirations. This will contribute a great deal in the maintenance and development of the minority languages. As language is a part of their culture and identity, this will assure them of survival and sustenance with their own distinctive identity to some extent. Consequently, this will lead to peace, harmony and stability in the region. Houlton and Willey (1982) argued in the same vein, as they stated that ‘positive responses to diversity’ and ‘encouraging bilingualism’ play a great role in racial harmony (p.17), because it will support the ‘self esteem and positive self image of the minority children. This approach of education will, hence, help to achieve greater harmonies in the CHT region, which underwent twenty six years of ethnic and political conflicts for the autonomy (a political system which will give them the power to preserve their own language, culture, heritage and identity) of the CHT people.
The UNDP Mission Report has also counted the geographical feature of CHT, which is fully mountainous, yet many parts are submerged under Kaptai Lake. Because of the geographical features children either have to “walk through the hilly terrain” for hours or “use the boats” (p.6). These are another significant facts of low enrolment in primary schools (14.6%). So, the government policy of setting up a school in ‘every two kilometers’ will not be effective and adequate in CHT context.
UNDP Mission Report has also contended that “Teaching is normally done in Bangla, a language alien to most of the young children from the indigenous communities. Local cultures and traditions are not respected within the curriculum” (UNDP Mission Report, p.6). This is another reason for the low rates of literacy in this region. In relation to this discourse of medium of instruction of child education, the Nobel laureate poet (1913) , Robindranath Tagore has also advocated that children should build the foundation of mother tongue before learning any other languages (widely used in Bangladesh, but I can’t give the reference here). The same voice is also heard from The UNESCO 1953 document, where it recommends, “In particular, pupils should begin their schooling through the medium of the mother tongue, because they understand it best and because to begin their school life in the mother tongue will make the break between home and school as small as possible” (Cited in Romaine, 1995, p. 20) The importance of teaching children in their mother tongue is also upheld in other influential pieces of legislation, the Directive of the Council of the European Community (Brussels/77486/EEC) as it instructs member states of the European Community to ‘take appropriate measures to promote the teaching of the mother tongue and the culture of the country of origin of the children of migrant workers, and also as part of the compulsory free education to teach one or more official languages of the host state” (cited in Romaine,1995, p.20).
All these facts clearly appeals to the opportunity of children having education in their mother tongue, which is necessary for their cognitive development and better understanding. This is the intrinsic spirit of the ‘universal education’ or ‘education for all’. The knowledge of ‘mother tongue’ also helps children in learning other language. Miller (1982) has given a vivid explanation of the linguistic aspect of how ‘mother tongue’ helps the children in education. He explained that because of the knowledge of the structure of mother tongue, children become more aware of structure of other languages, which scaffold the learning of other languages faster.
The competence of first language and second language makes the children bilinguals and being bilingual has many positive implications- linguistically, socially, economically and politically. Peal and Lambert (1962) found that bilingual children are intellectually superior to the monolinguals in terms of mental ability such as mental flexibility, concept formation, and diversified set of mental abilities. They have, of course, stated that they were not sure yet whether their superiority in intelligence is because of their bilingualism or they are bilingual because of their intelligence.
The UNDP Mission Report also noted that the diversity of language, culture and life style of CHT people “are not adequately addressed in the national textbooks, but [these] represented a way of life that is unfamiliar to the children” (UNDP Mission Report, p.7). But in contrast, all the educationists such as Baker (2006) and Child psychologists such as Piaget and Vygotsky; as well as the schema theory recommend to introduce content of education which are appropriate to the level of children’s age and schema. In this point UNDP has appropriately pointed to the right use of materials for children. The policy has argued that national language (Bangla) and international language (English) should be taught alongside the mother tongues, which are outmost necessities to succeed in life. Any education program must emphasize the future economic achievement and further education. Baker (2006) in this regard contends that an education program “needs to lead to economic and employment, social and cultural opportunities” (p.245).
Some other strengths I have found in the UNDP Mission Report are the measures of raising awareness, community mobilization (p.7) and community involvement (p.25, 27), allowance for flexibility in determining school holidays (p.9), issues of gender and ethnicity (p.18) etc. This project also aims at providing support to quality education (p. 48). Most importantly, it has expected that at the end of the program “The Government of Bangladesh will have policies in place that recognize the unique situation of the CHT education system” (UNDP Mission Report, p.13).
The greatest merit and strength of UNDP project is it will be leaving a foot-print in the history of Bangladesh for the education of CHT children by setting an example, by opening the eyes of the government and the people, by raising awareness among the people, by building the capacity of the local authorities, by training the teachers and by preparing teaching materials, books and dictionaries in the minority languages. It can be seen how important external influences like UNDP, ADB, EC, CIDA, DFID, UNICEF, NORAD etc. have been in this policy.
4.3.2 Limitations:
Despite having the above-mentioned revolutionary and historical positive aspects of the UNDP Mission Report for CHT primary education, it has some weaknesses and limitations too like other projects. These weaknesses are nature of the project rather than weaknesses. However, the UNDP Mission report invokes some confusion and questions, e.g. what does multi-lingual education (MLE) precisely mean, does it mean that the children will receive education instruction in national language, mother tongue, English and other languages; how effective are the training strategies mentioned in the policy, how long is UNDP CHTDF going to support the ‘project’, what does it recommend about the issue of ‘proxy teachers’ (p.6) etc.
In page 11, it is mentioned that the project is primarily proposed for 5 years with a potential of extension for another 5 years (If further funds are secured). As both projects- PEDP-II and UNDP Mission Report based project are intending to run for five years, the potentials of the great achievements will be endangered. In contrast to this option, any permanent phenomena such as ethnic diversity, linguistic and cultural pluralism of a country should be permanently addressed with constitutional guarantee, which is even necessary for a modern, stable, peaceful, harmonious and prosperous nation. I would, therefore, advocate for a “flexible and diversified education that would take the social and regional variety of the nation into account…with broad spirit of justice” (Pozzi-Escot, 1981 cited in Hornberger, 1988, p.23) which captures the spirit of Peru’s Education Reform (1972). We can also draw on the examples of the Indian constitution and the education acts of USA, in this regards. Annamalai (2001) delineates from Indian Constitution that “Article 29(a) provides the right for any section of the citizens to conserve its language, script or culture” (p.127). “Article 30 provides the rights for the linguistic minorities…to establish and administer educational institutions” (p127), which is further strengthened through VIIIth amendment as Article 350A which says, “provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups” (p.128). USA also provides especial education acts for the language and education of its minority peoples, such Native American Languages Act (1992), Indian Education Act (1972), No Child is Left Behind (2001). The same measures could be taken in Bangladesh.
The document does not provide any elaborate explanation of MLE, but it emphasizes that CHT children should have education in their ‘mother tongue’, Bangla and English. It does not clarify whether all the three languages will be used as mediums of instruction or not. If mother tongue and Bangla are used as mediums of instruction and English is taught as a subject, then I presume that the nature of the education system is bilingual education for the individual children. But as children of multiple language backgrounds are studying in the same school (in many cases), the program will be multilingual for the school. Within this clarification and principles, this education program can be described as MLE.
If this is the reality, I do advocate defining it as a heritage language bilingual education program. Theoretically, introducing a language based education program only in primary schools can not be expected to be fully successful, because within five years of education in the early stages of life, children can not master two languages in full competence. In this case the pulse of this education program is of a heritage language bilingual education, where it is aimed at maintaining and preserving the home language(s) of the children with a pathway to development, which has multiple implications.
Another striking limitation of this project is its policy of teacher training, which is fully aiming into a short-term goal without shedding light into long-term planning. As I perceived, the training program is very short and inadequate. It proposes that “initially trainers will be selected from the local NGO” (p.33) for ‘training of trainers (ToT)’ program who will receive training in four phases, such as ToT 1- 15 days, ToT 2- 8 days, ToT 3- 5 days and ToT 4- 5 days. There is no doubt that local NGOs are playing vital roles in the development of CHT, but my questions are how a short training will enable the NGO staffs to play the role of ‘Teacher Trainers’? How would the local school teachers view and accept them as their trainers? What will happen to the teacher training after the 5 years project? I would describe one of my findings in this regards. A primary school teacher told me a few years earlier that he attended some teacher-training conducted by one NGO and subsequently commented, “What the fellows will teach us about teaching! They do not even have a single day’s experience of teaching kids in school! Nonetheless, we go to the training, because they provide us a very good meal and 100 taka (Bangladeshi currency) allowance.” If this is the view of the teachers about the trainers, I doubt about its effectiveness and success. Nonetheless, a new program like MLE has no alternative to this approach. What I want to advocate is that UNDP should focus on strengthening the existing Primary Teacher Training Institute alongside the short-term package deal approach (the 5 year funding). This will be more beneficial for the long-term sustenance of MLE in CHT, which the teachers would also accept with respect. This project is also not addressing how the issue of ‘proxy teacher’ should be solved, though it is diagnosed as an existing problem in CHT primary education.
4. Recommendations
“Texts carry with them possibilities and constraints, contradictions and spaces. The reality of policy in practice depends upon the compromises and accommodations to these in particular settings” (Bowe, Ball & Gold, 1992, p.15). On the basis of the problems and strengths identified in the analysis of policy above, the following points of policy advocacy are recommended to be incorporated in the UNDP project of CHT primary education program (MLE) for necessary adjustments:
(i) Either multilingual education (MLE) should be understood as following the principles of bilingual education or it should be termed as a heritage language bilingual education (HLBE).
(ii)The Primary Teacher Training Institute (PTI) located in Rangamati Hill District should be strengthened by incorporating a component of heritage language bilingual education; hiring appropriate experts to run the training program and by providing sufficient resources and funding.
(iii) There should be a school every one kilometer in the areas of demographic concentration in CHT.
(iv) Teachers should be posted by policy in the nearest schools to their residence or village.
(v) Govt. should be generous to recognizing the multiculturalism and multilingualism of the country and should begin incorporating it in the constitution to open a long-term and sustainable education for the ethnic minority people, as does the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the rights and protection of the minority peoples’ language and culture.
(iv) Necessary education acts should be passed in the national parliament for the CHT and other minority people of Bangladesh similar to Native American Languages Act (1992) of USA; Indian Education Act (1972) of USA; No Child is Left Behind (2001) of USA.
5. Conclusion
Support to Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: Component Formulation Mission (2006) of United Nations Development Program-Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility is the first ever practical initiative to introduce the ‘mother tongue’ of the ethnic minority children of CHT in the local primary schools. In this sense, this is going to be a landmark initiative in the history of Bangladesh in general and in the history of the CHT people in general. If this is successfully implemented, the rate of enrolment in schools and the quality of the education could be predicted to be increased. It will at the same time, awaken the CHT people with charm, curiosity and compulsion, which will elicit spontaneous community support for the program. As a consequence, the threshold of the maintenance and development of the of the minority people will begin, which will contribute in achieving political harmony to some extent through increasing the self esteem of the CHT people and by assuring the survival and sustenance of their distinctiveness of languages and cultures which carry the ideological perspective of the policy. Because of this program, children will benefit both cognitively and academically. Thomas and Collier (1997) found the same pulse in their eight years long research over 700,000 school records of 42,317 students in minority children in the USA using ‘mother tongue’ in their early education. But as some limitations are diagnosed in the policy paper of the UNDP project, necessary steps should be taken to address them for better success and long-term benefits, which is provides the spaces of ‘other version’ and ‘policy development’. Simultaneously, UNDP, the local authority and the community will have to face substantial challenges in various aspects, as this is a new and dynamic project. So, sincere cooperation among all the stakeholders will be needed for the larger success of the program.
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