Resource Linking for MLEd in South Asia
Sixty teachers sat spellbound as they listened to David Pujari describe a never-before-taught letter from the alphabet chart during a multilingual education (MLEd) workshop. Although Mr. Pujari is from an ethnic minority people group in India— and not a formally trained teacher—his presentation gained him instant respect.
David Pujari (center) and the Bondo team
practice teaching a workshop lesson.
“David was a model teacher, but it was the effort of Mrs. Hannah Alex that led Mr. Pujari to be a confident teacher, capable to teach 60 professionally trained ethnic minority teachers,” wrote the facilitator of the government-sponsored MLEd workshop.
Mrs. Hannah Alex is a valuable coach, interpreter, teacher and tutor in government MLEd workshops.
As a highly acclaimed professional teacher, Mrs. Alex provided a vital link to instruction for David. Similarly, she has received MLEd training from several of SIL’s international consultants throughout the past six years. At the government’s invitation, SIL consultants, along with national counterparts like Mrs. Alex, instructed teachers from 18 local languages throughout two Indian states during 2006.
Mrs. Alex works with the Asha Kiran Society in holistic service that promotes MLEd. Because of the urgency of wanting to begin the MLEd program in 2007, the government has asked Asha Kiran Society to partner with them by being responsible for the complete training of three of the language groups.
In response to ongoing requests from governments and NGOs, and invitations from local communities, SIL’s consultants continue to serve all by linking partners and resources to assist ethnic minority communities as they strive to meet their MLEd goals.