RAIPUR: For decades, the primary educational challenge in Bastar was building schools and bringing children to them. Now the focus has convincingly moved to ensuring that children stay in those classrooms, learning with vibrant confidence by teaching in local tribal languages.
The tribal languages are integrated through a Multilingual Education (MLE) framework, transforming schools into familiar, welcoming spaces for first-generation learners.
This educational shift lies in a simple yet intentional textbook design. Classrooms often receive children who have had little to no prior exposure to Hindi. To ease this transition, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) designed textbooks in a bilingual layout: Hindi text is printed on one page, while the exact translation in the child’s local language is printed on the facing page.
Because many of these indigenous languages do not possess their own distinct script (leepi), the tribal and regional languages are written using the Devanagari script. This allows teachers to read the text easily. Instruction begins entirely in the child’s home language, building immediate comprehension before gradually introducing Hindi as a second language.
The SCERT multilingual education programme proudly covers 2.60 lakh primary students across 6,937 schools, driven forward by 7,650 specially trained teachers. Currently, students in Classes I and II are reaping the benefits of this bilingual syllabus, which seamlessly blends Hindi with nine distinct local tongues: Halbi, Bhatri, Dhurvi, Chhattisgarhi, Dorli, Madia, and three distinct regional variants of Gondi (Kanker, Bastar, and Dantewada).
A large-scale language survey jointly conducted by Samagra Shiksha Chhattisgarh, SCERT, and the Language and Learning Foundation (LLF) mapped the home languages of more than 4.12 lakh Class I students across 29,755 primary schools.
The findings were striking: Around 75% of students initially faced severe difficulties understanding their school syllabus simply due to the language gap between home and the classroom.
The survey documented 23 native languages across the state, with Chhattisgarh emerging as the most widely spoken (65.83%), followed by Surgujia (9.38%), Hindi (5.65%), Halbi (4.19%), and Sadri (3.97%).
“The multilingual education initiative is firmly aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and safeguards indigenous culture. A child’s first language establishes the strongest possible foundation for lifelong academic achievement,” said Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai.