Two Years Journey in a Chunk

 

 MTB-MLE and Me

I joined the project as an intern back in December 2018, then it was Three Language Framework. I was called for one week’s internship to understand the project, work, meet people and see if I can be part of it. After my one week’s internship I was hired for the post of Project Associate 3LF.

 

At that time, we had 4 members team Ajay, Ayesha, Anum and me. Before I joined, the team had already done a lot of work as visiting MTB-MLE models, conducting socio-linguistic survey in Tharparkar, conducting primary and secondary research. The team made me familiar with all the research and its findings till then. I was impressed by the findings and the way forward that I was part of.

My major task was to review all Sindhi Textbooks used in Sindh’s schools, with that I was also part of conducting interviews and field works. I was scared of being who am I as I did not work full time before. I had teaching experiences. But never worked under a male with dominant nature. But I was also sure that this venture is going to place me where many desire to be. The learning opportunities were higher than expectations.

There are few things that I found to be useful to share:

·        I was not a rigid supporter of English at any time as it can be assumed from my degree (MS in English Linguistics) but joining here lead me to the path of realization of importance of familiar language and its importance in education.

·        I started working on the review process which in itself was so heavy. There were piles waiting for me in nowhere as we were placeless at that time. The team sat anywhere where there was chair and table. But still we enjoyed the process and kept ourselves happy, cherishing every moment of work and fun. It expanded my comfort zone, and enthusiasm to work under any circumstances.

·         I developed a rubric to review textbooks, it was a double dose at that time. When I was still learning about the team members, office culture, other teams, and making relationships, I was also working on some toughest tasks too.

·        We had weekly meetings with Riaz Sb and Unaiza, in those meetings we discussed the interviews, field works, review results, and way forward plan. In each meeting I learned some new things. I was inspired by Riaz Sb’s zoom in and zoom out strategy, when he made audience concentrate on the things which he wanted to show. Also he wanted things to be categorized in three major points one by one (the summary in three chunks) made me think of various ways to summarize the long hours meetings. Unaiza’s in-depth questions took my mind out of box every time. Questions asked always needed some sort of reasons and logics rather than assumptions (one can come up with so many answers but Unaiza would still say Dekh lo just to make you sure of your answers)

 

My first month in 3LF:

My first month of visits and interviews looked like bellow:

·        My first visit to Hyderabad was with Anum, we met Ishaq Samejo and Sain Qalander Shah. The lead was given to anum to ask questions and I was taking notes. I found that 3LF is going to be the far reached project for its depth of understanding and work. I was sitting in front of my teachers and asking for the best experiences they can share about their lives. Meeting with Ishaq Samejo helped me to understand many things, as I remember he said ٻار کي روئڻ ايندو ته پنهنجي ٻولي ۾ روئيندو يا انگريزي ۾ رويئندو at that time I smiled but then I reflected that yeah, we were going into wrong directions but now I have opportunity to understand the worth of my own language.

·        He also said when you are teaching Sindhi to Sindhi students then why aren’t you teaching Dhatki to Dhatki students? Both have different languages and different cultures, different religions so one must consider the differences and accept it. With a satisfaction that I am working for a Nobel cause I came back to Karachi.

·        I visited SAGA School with anum in Sachal Goth, we were told that this school is sindhi medium. We went there, met with principals, teachers, admin officers, students, and observed classes (all were conducted in Sindhi). There I found that students were so energetic, confident and well spoken. They were singing songs, sharing their life routines when asked. It was due the use of their own language which they understand and easily communicate in it.

Every visit, interview call, meetings with stakeholders, and experts gave me insightful thoughts ranging from major findings of mother tongue’s importance to the behavioral issues faced by students in young age, from parents longing for English to their desire of mother tongue’s inclusiveness, from expert’s suggestions to the design of program to the hurdles of govt policy making, every bit needed to be understood well.

I and Anum also started understanding the current TCF and its practices across Pakistan. We had meetings with internal teams of TCF head office in which we are told about their nature of work, their stakeholders, and the way forwards and teams responsibilities. It expanded our understating of the works TCF is doing for education.

In this way our research phase was completed, now we were moving towards design and implementation part of the program. This was challenging because of some technicalities. We had to hire team including the project manager (because Ajay had become senior manager and was looking at two projects), which has proficiency in Sindhi language as well as in the content they are supposed to design. We always had so many applications but we needed to be cautious to choose. Till then the 3LF has changed to Mother Tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-MLE) because our language ladder design has 4 languages (Dhatki, Sindhi, Urdu and English).

Finally we had team in September 2019 (including the project manager) and we started designing the curriculum, mostly curriculum was adopted from TCF’s current practices but Sindhi Textbooks was to be designed with the research based Framework, the idea came later.

Our team was diverse from different corners of Sindh Province from upper to lower Sindh. With the diverse background, the diversity in language dialects was also visible. We started learning from everyone’s experiences. The time was to build relationships and make strong mutual understandings before working together. 8 members team was designing the MTB-MLE program’s curriculum.

Further, my designation was changed from project associate 3LF to Project Associate Language Trainer MTB-MLE. For me again it was the time when everything was new, the people whom I was working very closely were all new, my reporting line was changed, my nature of work was changed. I was in discomfort for many months but I knew that in the back everyone is supporting me to adjust.

Meanwhile in the design phase there were challenges that we all faced like language differences the team had, has pushed us back to sit and discuss which vocabulary to use, the individual differences always turned us to become reluctant sometimes. I had my own big challenge of managing my own task besides facilitating the team in their tasks.

When we all were to settle down somewhere, the pandemic started. It sucked all the peace, mental relaxation, and productivity. Although the pandemic was disturbing but the design of MTB-MLE was so exciting that it did not affect it completely. We all were sitting home but designing the curriculum, and trainings for the teachers. It was all a new experience.

After 5 months of lockdown period we all united in the Head Office with the condition of half team would work from home and half would be in HO. Our work was so connected that we all team members needed to be in the office (also work from home has become unbearable).

As we came to our office routines, we were told to prepare for the training in Tharparkar. Another milestone to achieve.

 

This journey has some sweet and some bitter experiences too, it has many more personal experiences some that has impacted me inward and some outward. The journey has made me cry as well as laugh too. This journey is not just mine but of everyone that is in the team. I have learned ways of living life, ways to think and solve problems, new ideas and strategies to use when stuck in any situation. Still a long way to go.

I call MTB-MLE as my baby and I mean it.