Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, March 13:

The first phase of translation of grade one text of two subjects — Mathematics and Social Studies — into five local languages has now been stalled due to technical reasons. “We are planning to incorporate the local culture and language in the texts while earlier it was the mere translation of the texts so as to make it easy for the students to understand,” said Jagganath Awa, director at the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC). The CDC, Sanothimi, started translating Mathematics and Social Studies texts in five local languages like Maithali, Sherpa, Magar, Tharu and Awadi. “The translated version was ready for printing but due to technical problems like differences in castes and their festivals, the work had to be stalled. However, the CDC is working on the localisation of the text,” said Awa.

According to the CDC, the translated version would come into use in the next academic year for the community-based primary schools. The Department of Education (DOE) has not released the fund of Rs 30 lakh for the translation work in seven other languages. The DOE had provided only Rs 5 lakh to the CDC to translate the texts in five languages but the CDC could translate only two subjects into five languages in the first phase. The CDC plans to translate all the texts into 12 languages. The other seven languages are Limbu, Newari, Tamang, Rai (Bantawa), Rai (Chamling), Bhojpuri and Gurung. The CDC started the translation work because of the increasing demand of the local communities for a better performance in grade one.Research shows that dropout rate is higher till grade five, especially in mono-lingual communities. The concept is targetted towards non-Nepali speaking children.