Yet to get textbooks in mother tongue

Indigenous children in the district are yet to get textbooks in their respective mother languages.

However, some of them go for the Roman alphabet, said Motura Bikas Tripura, member of Kokborak (Tripura) language syllabus maker of National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB).

Finding no other way, some schools in Sadar upazila started their pre-primary lessons with old books, said Suravi Talukder, headmaster of Perachara Government Primary School.

Chakma, Marma and Tripura are the most used languages of indigenous people in Khagrachhari.

Each of the indigenous children was supposed to get a pre-primary book on January 1 under the government's first-ever mother tongue-based multilingual education programme but the kids of the district are yet to get the books, which is very pathetic, said Motura Bikas Tripura.

Recently, the government distributed pre-primary books in five most used languages of the indigenous communities -- Chakma, Marma, Garo, Tripura and Sadri, he said.

Fatema Mehar Yesmin, district primary education officer, said the books will be distributed among the kids as soon as they get them.

Not only indigenous mother tongue books but also books of Bangla alphabet are yet to reach them, she said.

Fatema further said the higher authorities informed her that the books would be sent soon.

Satya Priya Tripura, headmaster of a primary school, said, “Chakma and Marma languages have their own alphabets and we are not familiar with those.”

It is very important to train the teachers about indigenous alphabet and language, said Motura Bikas Tripura.