Students of the Edamalakkudy tribal settlement in Idukki district now have an opportunity to improve their command of Malayalam. The Samagra Shiksha, Kerala, is conducting a special language training at the Edamalakkudy tribal lower primary school to enhance the reading and writing skills of the students.
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The Muthuvan language that does not have a script of its own has been translated into Malayalam and select students are being trained in it.
A majority of the Muthuvan tribal people, residing in the Edamalakkudy and Kuruthikkudy settlements, do not know how to read and write Malayalam. This had led to an increase in the number of children keeping away from education. A Samagra study found that the number of children reluctant to go to school was three times that of the enrolled students.
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The Samagra Shiksha, Kerala, drew up a special language training project for Edamalakkudy on the directions of Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty that the children’s education should not get disrupted on any account. Samagra’s specialist trainers and select education volunteers from Idukki district have been living in the Edamalakkudy tribal school to train nearly 60 students from the Muthuvan community.
Instead of textbooks, the training incorporated the Muthuvan way of life, culture, food, and so on. The one-month training includes academic activities that are practical. It is being conducted with the support of the Edamalakkudy grama panchayat and the Scheduled Tribe Development and Forest departments.
Besides improving the Muthuvan children’s language abilities, the project will help to increase the spread of Malayalam in the region and make the children academically competent by training them in schools’ medium of instruction. Special training is given to Tamil Muthuvans and Malayali Muthuvans.