School Success Among Bastar Tribals in India:

Does Home Language make any difference

Stanley V. JohnSchool Education,

Chhattisgarh State, Indiadr.stanjohn@gmail.com

Outline

• Background• Objective• Population & Sample• Sample details• Tool• Results & Findings• What do findings infer?• A step to ignite• Hurdles on the way-

Challenges

Background

Chhattisgarh StateChhattisgarh StateLiteracy: 71.04%

Male Literacy: 81.45%

Female Literacy: 60.59%

Sex Ratio: 991

Tribal population:>30%

Sample District: BastarSample District: BastarTribal population: >70%

Objective

To compare the high school academic performance of students with their home language same as school language (HL=SL) and those with home language different

from school language (HL≠SL)

Population & Sample

• Target group (tribal students.. )

• School levels & academic setup

• The sample: selection

• Features of the sample: two language

groups [School Language same as Home

Language (SL=HL) & SL ≠ HL]

Sample details(mean age 17.4 yrs)

Gender

Language Groups

TotalHL ≠

SLHL = SL

Boys 57 115 172Girls 38 69 107Total 95 184 279

Tool used

• High School Achievement Test (standardized) with 74 items (multiple choice)

Subjectno. of items

Hindi 22English 12Maths 16Science 14Social Science 10

Results & Findings

What do findings infer?

If home language is made a carrier signal for classroom delivery processes, tribal students are found to perform better

a step to ignite

Adaptation of two Meena flip chart stories (UNICEF) into tribal language-culture domain:1. count your chickens (मु�र्गि��यों� की गि�नती�)2. dividing the mango (आमु की� बटवा�रा�)

Hurdles on the way- challenges

● reluctance of community● english medium “affinity”● mind set of teachers● few mother tongue culture teachers

धन्योंवा�दThanks