Mohanty, Ajit
(2014)
Prenatal English? why not? mother tongue vs.
English in early education.
Learning Curve (22).
pp. 47-49.
Abstract
When Pinky, a Saora tribal girl from Tumulo village in
Gajapati district of Odisha, was born, her parents
were happy. “Our Pinky will go to school”, said the
father. Pinky’s mother was pleased to hear this.
“That will be really good. We were not that
fortunate. Pinky will be educated”, she said. Pinky
grew up, started walking and, before long, held her
father’s fingers to go to the village market. Amid all
her playful time, she would smile and utter a few
words – not quite clear but everyone around
seemed happy with her baby talk. Soon she uttered
broken sentences in Saora language to speak to her
parents, villagers and other children. She addressed
her parents in Saora, named the plants and trees,
flowers and fruits and animals around in her village.
Taking a ride on her father’s shoulder, she would
gleefully count, along with her father, all the
i butterflies she saw on her way to Bagada. The
villagers were impressed with Pinky; “She is a clever
girl!” they said. One day the village teacher said,
“She is six-year old already. Send her to school.”
Pinki’s parents were very happy taking her to school
for her admission. Pinki was also happy. She got new
books and notebooks from her school and proudly
showed them to her mother, who said, “Your
teacher will teach you how to read these books. I
never learnt to read.”
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