Resumen de Language policies and practices across border: perspectives on mother tongue-based education for Kurukh-speaking children of Bengal

Asifa Sultana, Dripta Piplai (Mondal), Indrani Roy

• Within a premise that language-in-education policies can play a significant role in preserving the marginalized languages, in this exploratory study, we examine the policies and practices around Kurukh in primary schools in the two Bengals, i.e. Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. In order to understand the policy provisions, we closely examined the relevant policy documents of the given regions with regard to mother tongue-based education (MTBE). In Alipurduar in West Bengal, India and Rangpur, Bangladesh, we interviewed teachers and observed classroom practices in primary schools. A possible role of the policies impacting the minoritized languages can be observed in the finding that as children spend more years in receiving education in the dominant language, their proficiency in the home language seems to decline. However, we also find that the overall linguistic landscape interacts heavily with the centralised language-in-education policies creating different classroom scenarios in the two contexts. Discussing the role of policies and schooling, we recommend that the policymakers need to carefully consider the local realities in order to create equitable and effective policies for education.