Literacy

The idea of a pilot bilingual education project was conceived against the backdrop of poor development in Kam education and economics, and the threat of rapid and terminal erosion of Kam culture. In 1998, Professor Long Yaohong, a teacher of Kam language at the Guizhou Institute of Nationalities, decided to embark on a primary school bilingual education strategy for supporting Kam economic development and cultural maintenance. SIL members Norman and Ruth Geary have worked with Professor Long and other Kam colleagues to get this pilot project started.

Other Kam leaders in positions of influence are also strongly supportive of promoting Kam literacy to enhance literacy in Chinese and to sustain Kam culture. This has been the first key in promotion of a bilingual education pilot project in Zaidang village, Rongjiang county, Guizhou province. The second has been the support of local leaders and parents in the village. This support has grown naturally from the encouragement of Kam and Han leaders from outside the village, and from a recognition that the former educational status quo in the village could well be improved.

The Dai-Han bilingual education project started among the Dai Lue in Jinghong county, Xishuangbanna prefecture, Yunnan province.

SIL member Heidi Cobbey first became involved at the request of education authorities and is currently working with the research office of the Jinghong County Education Department in Jinghong City. SIL funded the training and curriculum development and printing of materials. The Jinghong county education department pays the teachers’ salaries.

The ability to read is not an isolated intellectual skill, but the key to development at the personal, local and national levels. In keeping with SIL's emphasis on the people who use lesser-known languages, our work focuses on grassroots, community-based programs for smaller language communities. The East Asia Group of SIL International is committed to a goal of enabling local people to assume responsibility for sustainable programs in their own communities and languages.

A Co-operative Venture with Local Authorities

The Bai Literacy Project is a six year co-operative venture between SIL and the Yunnan Province Language Affairs Commission. It has the active involvement of the Jianchuan County Education and Culture Bureaus, who have committed, amongst other things, to providing and staffing the project office. SIL is providing the primary funding for this project with local authorities contributing minimally.