UN Forum Zabarang Kalyan on Minority Issues 2008 Morning Session: VI. The Relationship Between De-Segregation Strategies, Cultural Autonomy and Integration in the Quest for Social Cohesion Tuesday, 16 December 2008, Geneva, Switzerland Mathura Bikash Tripura Executive Director, Zabarang Kalyan Samity Bangladesh is culturally, ethnically, religiously and linguistically diversified country. There are more than 45 ethnic groups living in Bangladesh. The rich tapestry of minority ethnic groups makes up approximately 2 percent of the population of the country. Though these groups identify themselves as ‘Adivasi’ or ‘indigenous’, the terms ‘ethnic minority’, ‘Adivasi’, ‘indigenous’ and ‘tribal’ are used interchangeably within documents and literature in Bangladesh. In the PRSP document they are mentioned as ‘Indigenous Peoples’, and at the PEDPII documents as ‘Tribal’. The total population in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is about 1.3 million, among them 90% live in the rural areas. There are about 13 different indigenous groups in the region. Majority of the Indigenous Peoples are not literate in mother tongue, only 30.6% literate in Bangla, the national language. As a whole, net enrolment rate in Bangladesh has been increased from 71.2% in 1990 to 86.6% in 2001, with gender parity. But in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, only 56.8% of the indigenous children from 6-10 years aged group enrolled I schools, and 60% of the enrolled children drop out in early primary (ADB, 2001). This is double national dropout rate; the children are turning away for not speaking Bangla and they are experiencing education in a totally unfamiliar language. There are also other difficulties in achieving education by the local indigenous communities. Among others irrelevancy of curriculum with the local culture and social context, language barriers between teachers and students, recruitment or appointment of teachers from outside community, less numbers of schools and remoteness of communities are some of the most difficult obstacles to educational access faced by the CHT indigenous groups. The education system is managed on one fixed model, without considering the need to make changes to deliver the education rights of minorities. It is almost a deliberate attempt to exclude minority languages from official spheres. Willingness or interest of government and political parties in minority children’s education is not strong. Though the Government of Bangladesh is signatory to numerous international conventions and initiatives it has some favorable policies and programs to increase access to and quality of primary education and this has increased access, particularly for girls, but unfortunately as yet has not been so effective on quality. At the local level, most parents and community members are not empowered to participate in school affairs and the local institutions are not fully authorized to deal with the context specific education situation, especially in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region. To cope with these difficulties, Zabarang Kalyan Samity with the support of the Save the Children has initiated one pilot program on education in three major languages to ensure inclusive quality education. The ‘quality’ means learning opportunity of children in their own language and contents of curriculum address their culture and daily life. Under this initiative, we are covering 60 pre-primary centres in the most remote villages in three major languages- Chakma, Marma and Tripura with ultimate ambition to bridge the process with the formal schooling process. We