Now, tribesmen can learn in their own languages

KOCHI: The Kerala State Literacy Mission (KSLMA) is all set to break fresh ground to educate tribals in the state by introducing novel methods.As the preliminary step, the department has launched a primer which will educate the tribals in their own languages. Alassankutty P, director, KSLMA said that the language has often caused a lot of hurdles in educating the tribals.“The usual textbook would not serve the purpose as the colloquial language of tribal communities are different.Hence we have prepared a new one,” he said.The KSLMA will adopt the Attapadi model which was designed by the Attappady Hills Area Development Society (AHADS) for the tribals in the area.The model was prepared for the three tribal communities of Attapady- Irula, Muduga and Kurumba.“The peculiarity of the Attapadi model is that though it uses the Irula, Muduga and Kurumba language, the script is in Malayalam,” he said.The KSLMA officials said that they would follow the same model as it was proved successful.“Language plays a cardinal role in such tasks.Since the tribal languages do not have scripts we are using the Malayalam script,” said Manoj Sebastian, tribal project coordinator, KSLMA.He said that they had an agenda when they thought of using the Malayalam script for the purpose.“With such an effort, a connection will be established between the Malayalam language and the tribal languages and they will get acquainted with Malayalam,” he said.The officials also feel that this project would eventually result in the empowerment of tribes in the state.“Imparting education through the mother tongue plays a pivotal role.Most of the tribal communities are lagging behind as the education is not being given through their own languages.Owing to this, the number of dropouts of tribal students from schools are also on the rise.If all goes well, this new method will give them a fresh lease of life,” said P E Usha, assistant director, Women’s Development, AHADS.Alassankutty said that the preraks have been chosen from the tribals and they will be monitored by the preraks of State Literacy Mission.