Chandana Tripura, Bangladesh teacher: “I didn’t want to go to school because I did not understand Bangla, because I speak Kokborok in my mother tongue. Most of the time teacher-student communication was in Bangla and I didn’t have friends due to lack of Bangla knowledge. We are losing our culture like, festival, dress, rhymes, fairy tales etc. lack of use and practice. I am now knowledgeable on this due to Mother Tongue based Multilingual Education ( MTBMLE ) curriculum and students are also know about culture of other ethnic groups’ like Marma, Chakma, Garo etc. Moreover, parents and villagers are aware of these as well.I do believe that mother tongue based education is very supportive for different ethnic minority children. I do believe that mother tongue based education system is needed for continue cultural diversity of different ethnic minority. So this program need to extend in future.”
