Both the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities in India have a knowledge base that has developed and evolved over the centuries and it needs to be kept intact and carried forward.

For this besides the institutional knowledge, the SC and ST primary school students in Odisha will now be imparted indigenous knowledge system. This will be specific to their communities and it will be taught to them in schools governed by the ST & SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare department.

To ensure that the communities understand this knowledge in an easy manner, it will be taught both in their tribal language and Odia in a graded manner. The latter will help them to make transition to Odia easier once they reach Class VI.

In order to implement this, the department will make two changes in its primary schools to align with the National Education Policy-2020.

This step is important as according to P. Patel who is the lead researcher in the Academy of Tribal Languages and Culture in the present system of education, the old-age knowledge and culture is getting undermined. This is evident as both SC and ST children are bereft of their cultural and heritage traditions.

Patel, sharing details with the media, said under NEP, the students will be told about their ancestral knowledge systems including information and logic of shift cultivation, tribal counting system, and tribal rituals. These topics along with more from the indigenous knowledge system will be integrated in the education system. This he said will provide them information about their culture and science.

To ensure that children learn their native language as well as Odia without any problem, the department this year is releasing the revised edition of primers in 21 tribal languages at primary-level. The revised primers in Koya, Desia, Saura, Kuvi, Sadri, Gondi and Munda languages have been already distributed and the remaining are being printed.

In Classes I to III, these primers are in environmental science and mathematics and in language while in Classes IV and V, the language subject will be taught in both Odia and the tribal language.

This will enable the students to migrate to Odia easily when the reach the upper grades like Class VI.