Nexus of Good: Beacon of excellence

In the glittering ceremony held on December 15, 2024 at PHD House, New Delhi, Language Learning Foundation (LLF) was one of the proud recipients of Nexus of Good Annual Awards, 2024

Language and Learning Foundation (LLF) is an organisation focused on improving the foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) of children in India since 2015. Collaborating with state and national governments, LLF aims to reduce India’s Learning Poverty from 56.1 per cent to 25 per cent by 2027. Partnering with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Ministry of Education and State Governments, LLF shapes policy, develops professional courses, and supports state-level Multilingual Education (MLE) initiatives. Since 2015, LLF programmes have impacted 16.2 million children and improved the classroom practices of 1.08 million teachers in government schools across 10 Indian states.

One of LLF’s core founding principles is that integrating children's primary languages into early education is essential for enhancing learning outcomes. Language is central to early cognitive and social development, encompassing communication, reasoning, collaboration, reading, and writing. Using a familiar language fosters engagement, comprehension, confidence, and verbal reasoning, while also facilitating the acquisition of additional languages. LLF also emphasises the importance of a multilingual learning environment that balances familiar and less familiar languages to support bilingual or multilingual literacy and subject learning.

In India, despite the political will and supportive policy frameworks like NEP 2020 and NIPUN Bharat, implementing MLE faces significant barriers due to the persistence of autonomous monolingual ideologies. These ideologies often exclude minority languages, particularly tribal languages, from the education system, contributing to high dropout rates and low academic and socio-economic achievement among children from tribal communities. The core issue lies in the absence of scalable, practical models to integrate multilingual education within FLN programmes. This challenge is especially acute in linguistically diverse states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, where systemic gaps in teacher training, learning resources, and community engagement further hinder effective implementation, perpetuating educational inequities and socio-economic disadvantages.

The approach that LLF takes towards MLE, thus, to enhance foundational learning in language, literacy, and early-grade mathematics constitutes two broad paradigms. The first is collaborating with the state governments to integrate MLE into state-level FLN programmes from Balvatika 1 to Grade 3, under NIPUN Bharat, and the second, is showcasing a scalable model that can be implemented by state governments. This strategy ensures that MLE is embedded within the FLN curriculum, rather than treated as a separate initiative, emphasising the inclusion of children’s familiar languages alongside the state or regional medium of instruction. As such, this approach spans curriculum design, learning materials, assessments, teacher training, and classroom practices, particularly in regions where non-dominant languages (NDLs) prevail.

This model emphasises systemic reform, demonstration projects, capacity building, community engagement, and long-term sustainability through government ownership. The salient features of this model include:

● Systemic reform: LLF collaborates with state institutions like SCERT and Samagra Shiksha to embed MLE strategies into FLN curricula and teacher training. By developing guidelines that address the needs of non-dominant languages, it ensures MLE becomes part of the broader educational framework.

● Demonstration projects: High-touch projects in select schools serve as proof of concept, showcasing the impact of MLE strategies through classroom interventions, teacher training, and community engagement. As states gain familiarity with MLE, LLF transitions to low-touch models, offering broader support with minimal resources to ensure sustainability through the state systems.

● Capacity building: Continuous professional development for teachers, cluster, block and district education officials is central to scaling MLE. Through collaboration with District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) and other state institutions, LLF uses blended learning—combining online and face-to-face training—to maximise reach.

● Community engagement: Initiatives like storytelling festivals and school museums encourage local participation, fostering stronger school-community ties and ownership of MLE programmes.

● Monitoring and evaluation: Regular assessments and feedback loops enable data-driven adjustments, ensuring effective scaling.

● Sustainability: By embedding MLE into state policies and working closely with governments, it ensures long-term integration and success.

In collaboration with the Rajasthan State Government, LLF’s first research and demonstration multilingual education project was implemented in Dungarpur, Rajasthan. Building on the insights from this project, the Bastar Multilingual Education programme was launched in 2022 aimed at enhancing foundational learning outcomes (FLN) for children in Chhattisgarh in partnership with the state government. This project was conceived as a combined demonstration and research framework, encompassing two interconnected yet distinct components. First, it aims to demonstrate an evidence-based strategy for implementing L1-based MLE in primary grades, highlighting its practical application and effectiveness. Second, the insights gained from this initiative are intended to expand the scope of MLE implementation at scale, serving as a proof of concept for similar socio-linguistic contexts within Chhattisgarh and other regions.

To assess the underlying challenges for the project, LLF conducted a comprehensive Language Mapping study in collaboration with the Chhattisgarh State Government. The survey revealed that over 90 per cent of Grade 1 students in Bastar District speak tribal languages distinct from Hindi, the official medium of instruction in schools. This finding underscored the need for an MLE approach to bridge the linguistic gap and enhance learning outcomes.

The Bastar MLE Project encompasses several interrelated components designed to create a comprehensive and sustainable multilingual education framework. Capacity building is a central pillar, involving the training of State Resource Groups (SRGs), District Resource Groups (DRGs), teachers, head teachers, and Cluster Academic Coordinators (CACs) to ensure effective implementation at all levels. Curriculum development focuses on designing contextually relevant guidelines, protocols, and teaching-learning materials (TLMs) that integrate students' primary languages into the learning process. Community engagement plays a critical role in fostering local ownership and support through initiatives such as storytelling sessions and Shala Sangrahalayas (MLE School Museums), with 900 storytelling sessions and 25 Shala Sangrahalayas conducted to date. Monitoring and evaluation ensure continuous improvement through regular school visits, academic support, block-level review and reflection meetings, and ongoing assessment research. These components collectively strengthen the project's impact, ensuring its alignment with the linguistic and cultural needs of the region while enhancing student learning outcomes.

Expanding to 1,524 schools across all seven blocks of Bastar, the project has impacted 38,874 students, 1,894 teachers, and 320 officials. Baseline data (December 2022) and midline data (September 2024) show significant gains: 31 per cent in literacy, 25 per cent in numeracy, and improvements in word reading (27 per cent), listening comprehension (23 per cent), and writing (18 per cent), affirming the MLE approach's effectiveness.

In addition to the Bastar MLE Project, LLF is currently implementing the Jharkhand MLE Programme in partnership with the Jharkhand State Government bodies, which has been implemented across 1,000 schools since early 2024. Concurrently, an MLE Pilot Project in Rajasthan is executed and technical support for the development and implementation of MLE initiatives is being provided in Assam and Odisha. The strategic partnerships with organisations such as UNICEF-India, HCL Foundation, Deloitte Foundation, Central Square Foundation, Maitri Trust, and the Great Eastern Shipping has been instrumental in the execution of LLF’s endeavours. Leveraging insights and best practices from the Bastar project, these initiatives aim to enhance foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) outcomes in these states through a contextually responsive multilingual education framework, thereby contributing to the broader goal of strengthening equitable and inclusive education in linguistically diverse regions.

What LLF has managed to accomplish under the inspired leadership of Dhir Jhingran is truly inspiring and presents a wonderful example of Nexus of Good. Here is a model that is already scaling and has the potential to scale even further.

Views expressed are personal