Lack of textbooks in mother language and shortage of teachers of their own communities hamper schooling of a large number of indigenous children, mostly the Santals, in different areas of Sadar, Gomostapur and Nachole upazilas under the district.
Sajoni Hemrom, of Class IV, and Sumitra Tudu, of Class V of Jalahar Government Primary School in Sadar upazila are lucky enough as their teachers are Santals. Still they face problems as the textbooks are in Bangla and English.
"Most of the 70 students of this school are Santals as there are 60 families of the community at Jalahar village, a Santal-majority area. At school they learn Bangla and English and the teachers using Santal language help them to understand the texts. They would be __more interested to learn if the textbooks were in mother language," said Anas Saren, acting headmaster of the school.
This correspondent also visited Amnura Mission Non-Government Primary School, run by Norwegian Lutheran Mission, at Jhilim union under Sadar upazila on Saturday.
Of the 238 students, 132 kids, including 73 Santals, belong to different ethnic communities. All the five teachers are also of the minority communities.
The ethnic kids read Bangla and English texts, but cannot speak the languages clearly.
Conditions of most other indigenous learners in the district are worse as they have to learn with Bangla speaking teachers.
According to indigenous leaders in Chapainawabganj, at least 25,000 indigenous people belonging to ethnic communities including Santal, Kole, Oraon, Mahato and Rajbangshi live in the district, the Santals being the largest among them.
The government should arrange textbooks for Santal kids in Roman alphabet, which is used for writing Santal language since 1863, said Hingu Murmu, president of Uttarbanga Adibasi Parishad.