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India's rich multilingual, multicultural society creates a complex challenge to the Government as it attempts to address the educational needs of its tribal communities. Although access to schools has increased and enrolment rates are improving, the dropout rates are still alarmingly high and achievement levels are low compared to their non-tribal counterparts. One of the reasons for this is that education is conducted in a language they do not understand using an unfamiliar cultural context.
Research has demonstrated that an education which begins in the mother tongue and builds competence in the second language before using it as the medium of instruction, thus reducing the linguistic and cultural barriers faced by students when entering school, is a key component in increasing the educational attainment of speakers of minority languages.
In order to address these challenges the governments of several states in India have chosen to develop and implement education programmes using the local languages, tribal context and environment in several of their minority-language communities. This paper outlines the processes used in creating multilingual education programmes in an attempt to offer an improved quality of education and examines the challenges to success and sustainability.
