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Mrs. Tuenjai Deetes (Thailand), Mrs. PatriciaTauroa (New Zealand) and Dr. Varsha Das(India) were resource persons to the workshop.E.Orientation of the WorkshopMr. T.M. Sakya and Mr. Shinji Tajima tookturns at giving a brief orientation regarding the11-day workshop. Mr. Sakya pointed out thefollowing concerns in order to guide theparticipants on what to do:1.2.3.4.5.6.Who are the minorities? Let us define.What do they really need? Let us identify.What skills do they need to learn?How will you teach them?Do they need books? Who will providethem?Where do you teach them? Do you have acentre?Mr. Shinji Tajima explained the tasks ofparticipants in the workshop using three kinds ofcomprehensive pictures. Using the analogy of aniceberg, he emphasized that it is important torealize that there are more invisible factors andconditions beneath the surface than those easilyvisible in people's existence, particularly in thecase of minority peoples. Therefore, how tounderstand the invisible factors is essential incarrying out the work. He also pointed out thatthe learning process is not always easy for thelearners and there are "sleep hills" and "creeks" inthe process of learning. So considerations as tohow we can guide and encourage the learners tocontinue their efforts are required.Mr. Tajima briefed the participants about theprocedure and expected outcome of theworkshop. The First Phase (Plenary Session)of the workshop consisted of:Sharing the experiences of participatingcountriesInputs by Resource Persons fromThailand, New Zealand and India1)2)The Second Phase (Group Work) consisted of:3)4)5)--Identification of needs and problems inliteracy education of minority peoples inrespective countriesPreparing the guidelines for thedevelopment of literacy materials forminority peoplesField survey in the villages;Identification of needs and problems in thevillagesDevelopment of literacy materialsField testingThe Third Phase would be:6)Follow-up Activities by the participants ineach countryMr. Tajima also went through the tentativeschedule to give the participants a whole pictureof the workshop.The morning session was ended with a veryclear understanding of the objectives of theworkshop by all the participants.F. UNESCO ReportMr. T.M. Sakya rendered a verycomprehensive report on the accomplishments ofUNESCO. His report was supported withexplanatory pictures, graphs, and statistics. Mr.Sakya stressed the following points:1.Functional literacy as a factor in childsurvival. Most of the non-fornial educationprogrammes in every country integrate healtheducation as one of their components.Functional literacy as an entry point forlivelihood. Training modules on livelihood areeither integrated into literacy training or offeredas a separate post-literacy training for neoliterates.2.Community involvement. Communitysupport ensures the success of any education/literacy project. Thus, prior to projectimplementation, consultations with localgovernment units and the tribal hierarchy areundergone to ensure cooperation and acceptanceof the project.3.Indigenous people as para-teachers. Whereapplicable, newly literate members of the targetindigenous communities are tapped as literacyfacilitators.4.The vernacular as the medium of instruction.The use of the mother tongue as a medium ofinstruction and for literature (learning materials)has been proven more effective for the follov, lugreasons:5.learning materials in vernacular serve tomotivate the target minority group to readand write.h. It is easier for the adult learner to relatewritten symbols to sounds and concepts ofa language that he has knowledge of thanto those of an unknown or partially knownlanguage.c. The use of the mother tongue promotesa.-1 0

experiences on the education of minority andindigenous peoples and preparation of learningmaterials for them.individual and ethnic identity.d. Self-esteem is bolstered through the use ofthe mother tongue.e. Language is preserved for futuregenerations to come.(A) Mrs. Tuenjai Deetes, Secretary General ofthe Hill Area Development Foundation shared herexperience in working with tribal peoples inNorthern Thailand for 20 years. Currently, thereare more than 560,000 hill tribe people inThailand. The need of hill tribe people can becategorized in three main areas:He also mentioned of the efforts thatUNESCO is making. He said it is only offeringguidance to each country on what to do , but it isup to that country to do everything to get thesupport of their government officials.G. ACCU ReportMr. Shigeo Miyamoto, Executive Director of'CCU presented various Asia/Pacific jointprogrammes of ACCU in the fields of literacy,book development and culture, which have beenconducted in full co-operation with thepart i ipating countries in Asia and the Pacific and'NESCO. Among its literacy programmes someof the major ones are as follows:Development of literacy materials for neoliterates1)1) the need to have the rights to be Thai citizens;2) the need to have the rights for land possessionin the areas they have been cultivating fordecades; and3) the need to be literate in Thai: the nationallanguage.Regarding educational and developmentalprogrammes for tribal peoples in Thailand, thereare several organizations working in this area.These organizations are:a) The Border Patrol Police, focusing on tribalTraining of experts on the development ofliteracy materials at regional, sub-regional andnational levels2)Production and dissemination of guidebookson literacy materials and videos on literacypromotion3)He pointed out that training of experts on thedevelopment of materials for minority peoples atthe sub-regional level is the very first challengefor ACCU and UNESCO, and therefore, theresults of this workshop would be extremelyuseful not only for the participating countries butalso to other parts of the world.peoples living along the boundary areas.b) The Public Welfare Department, focusing onoverall development of tribal communities.c) The Department of Non-formal Education(DNFE), placing special emphasis on basiceducation of tribal peoples. The Hill AreasEducation (HAE) model developed by DNFEhas been extensively implemented in morethan 500 tribal communities.d) The Department of Secondary Education andthe Office of National ElementaryEducational Commissions.However, the scope and areas covered bygovernment and NGOs are still limited due to:H. Country ReportsIn the reports presented by the participatingcountries, it came out that the following problemsare common to every country: I) Lack offunding, 2) Lack of reading materials, 3) Lackof personnel, 4) Lack of road networks, 5) Lackof transportation leading to the minority villages.Please refer to Chapter 4-3) of this report fordetails of the Country Reports on the Educationof Minority Peoples in nine Asian countries.I.Besides that, several NGOs also providesimilar types of educational and developmentalactivities focusing on tribal peoples.Resource Person's InputThree resource persons, Mrs. Tuenjai Deetes(Thailand), Mrs. Patricia Tauroa (New Zealand)and Dr. Varsha Das (India), shared their-3-the lack of qualified and devoted personnel towork with tribal peoples;2) insufficiency of educational facilities andlearning materials;3) lack of people's participation in developmentand educational activities. Although the HAEmodel relies more on communityparticipation, the emphasis on suchparticipation decreased when it was adoptedand implemented on a regular basis;4) opportunity for tribal people to acquire furthereducation is still limited.1)Based on her extensive and insightfulexperiences, she provided some suggestionsregarding education for minority peoples.11

1) Functional literacy has to be widely expandedto cover all tribal communities so that all ofthem can learn and communicate in thenational language.the reason why so many Maori are now in thelowest levels of socio-economic situations inNew Zealand as well as many being only semiliterate in English.2) The curriculum and contents have to be relatedto living conditions of the people, such asareas concerning environmental preservation,soil ero.m, water shortage, re-forestation,indigenous wisdom, social values, folklore,child-care, AIDS prevention, etc. Localcurriculum should also be encouraged. Theseareas may differ from one country to another.They now know that Maori people lost theirlanguage because the use of English wasemphasized, and with this, Maori language wasnot regularly used. After only 2 or 3 generations,the language began to be lost. She went on to saythat Maori are now faced with the verydemanding task of saving their own language bydeveloping methods to teach their children- andother adults to speak Maori and learn theirMaori customs and traditions.3) Learning materials should be made moresimple with realistic and clear illustration.Learning materials may be in forms of posters,flip-charts, leaflets, radio/tape cassetteprogrammes and other local materials.4) Teaching approach has to be integrated and bilingual. The approach has to be flexibleaccording to the working schedule of localpeoples. Teachers should live in the tribalcommunity, and organize other developmentalactivities as well.5) There should also be other supporting systems,particularly pre-service and in-service forteacher training, as well as ways to promotemorale of the teachers.(B) Mrs. Patricia Tauroa of the Tu Runango oWhaingaroa (Authority of Whaingaroa Tribe) ofthe Maori people in New Zealand presented herreport with demonstrations and participation ofthe partic pants. She emphasized the value ofminority Languages and stressed that the ability tocommunicate with their own people and to beable to communicate with people of other races,particularly the majority people within our ownnations are equally important.She mentioned that in encouraging minoritypeoples to achieve literacy in any language, it isimportant that the traditional language and cultureof the individual is retained. Each person isimportant, and his or her personal dignity mustremain intact.The importance of literacy in the mothertongue for minority peoples is demonstrated bythe situation now faced by the Maot i people ofNew Zealand. For many years, it was believedthat learning only the national language of NewZealand was important for the Maori.Regretfully, this resulted in the gradual anddisturbing decline in the ability of Maori peopleto speak their own language. It was also seen asShe said that minority peoples need tobecome literate in the national language of theirrespective countries, but not at the expense oftheir mother tongue. Materials produced to assistminority peoples' literacy, need to have this as abasis element of the objective.(C) Dr, Varsha Das, Editor of National BookTrust, India, which is a multi-lingual country with16 official languages , explained that in a multilingual and multi-ethnic country Tike India,educators, communicators, and administratorsface the problem of conducting their tasks in themost effective manner for minority languageareas. The problem becomes more severe ingeographically difficult terrains like mountains,forests, isolated islands, deserts, etc.Educational research and studies have proventhat creative ability and functional activity ofmind and body are at their best when the teachercan communicate in the learner's mother tongueand learning material is also available in thelearner's language and script. There can be asituation where the mother tongue is differentfrom the regional/national language. In suchcases, basic literacy material for minority peoplecan be developed on a transfer model, consistingof three parts. The first part would have all thewords from the regional/national language andthe third part would have only a few words fromthe spoken language. The transition would requiresupport reading material at every stage tostabilize literacy skills.J.Field ObservationAfter the presentation of Ms. Tuenjai Deetes,the participants visited two hill tribe villages,Paka Sukjai village (Akha People) and JakomaVillage (Lahu People), in one of the three primarywatershed areas, which were situatedapproximately 70 kilometre:, north of Chiang Raicity.4I

still cannot understand it then, we may also liedown in the sun to reflect on it. Deeply impressedby the wisdom on the co-existence of nature andhuman being in harmony expressed by Mr.Jakoma, the participants returned to the hotel.About one year ago, a cement road wasconstructed in the hills and access to the villageshas drastically changed.The participants first visited the VillageLearning Centre in Paka Sukjai village which wasconstructed with the cooperation of villagersthemselves, using light wood, bamboo andthatched roof. It is run after the model of HAEproject (Hill Area Education), an "Ashram"approach. One teacher lives in that learningcentre serving the community, providing not onlyeducation but also other necessary services forcommunity development.K. Group Work (from field-survey,development of materials and fieldtesting)The participants were divided into threegroups and the following three activities wereconducted.1) Identification of Needs and Problems inLiteracy Education of Minority Peoples inRespective Countries (by NP-ivIethod)The participants had lunch at the learningcentre and the leaders of the village were alsoinvited to join the group for lunch.2) Preparing Practical Guidelines for ConductingStudy/Survey on the Needs of MinorityPeoples, Producing Effective Basic LiteracyLearning Materials and Teaching andEffectively Utilizing the MaterialsThen the participants visited the office of theHill Area Development Foundation in the villageand were briefed about the village by the leadersand youth of the community who interpreted theexplanation of the leaders from Akha languageinto Thai language.3) Development of Learning Materials forMinority PeoplesThe households in this village settled thereabout 17 years ago and produce variousagricultural products such as highland rice, cornand vegetables. They keep water buffalo, cows,chickens and pigs, and try to grow trees for shadein the community. However, unlike in previoussettlements, they cannot grow cotton, so thematerials for clothes such as cott.,n have to bepurchased from outside now instead of beingproduced at home. In order to prevent soilerosion in this area, the village has taken upsustainable agriculture also.For the item 3) above, a field survey wasconducted before the development of materialsand also a field testing was conducted with thenewly developed draft materials. Also from timeto time, plenary sessions were held for sharingand interaction with other group members on thework. The participants prepared 9 kinds of draftlearning materials in total.4) Field-testing of the Learning MaterialsThe guidelines prepared by the participantsin three groups are compiled in Chapter 2 of thisreport and the details of the group work are inChapter 3.The participants were divided into threegroups which visited the houses of the leadersand talked with the village people.The participants walked for about 2kilometres in the hills from the road and visitedJakorna village (Lahu people). The Hill AreaDevelopment Foundation is also working withthis village and after the warm welcome cc thevillage leader, Mr. Jakoma, the participants wereinvited to have dinner at his house. Mr. Jakomaand another villager had obtained Thai citizenshipbased on their active service and contributions tothe preservation of forest and sustainableagriculture. After going around the village, theparticipants gathered in the Learning Centre andlistened to the village leader. He mentioned thatthe forest a "big storage" to fulfill our life andif we cannot realize that, we may simply walkmore to think about it in the scorching sun. If weL.Preparation of Follow-up ActivitiesRegarding the follow-up activities to hecarried out in respective countries after theSecond Sub-Regional Wotkshop, Mr. ShinjiTajima of ACCU explained about the importanceof the follow-up and asked each participant tosubmit a plan of follow-up activities to ACCU by30 May 1994. The Plans of National Follow-upActivities submitted by the participating countriesare in Chapter 5 of this report.M. ClosingThe closing ceremony of the workshop was513

held in the morning of 5 March. Each participantexpressed his/her view and comment on thesignificance of this Sub-Regional Workshop fromvariou3 viewpoints. In particular, it was pointedout that since in many cases, the minority peopleslive beyond national boundaries, participation ofall the neighbouring countries in the Workshopand working together for achieving the commongoals was of vital significance.N. RecommendationsThe recommendations submitted by each ofthe participants were compiled and the DraftRecommendations addressed to UNESCO, toACCU and to the Member States were adopted inthe Plenary Session. The Recommendations arein the following page.Second Sub-Regional Workshop on the Development of Basic LiteracyLearning Materials for Minority Peoples in Asia and the PacificChiang Rai, Thailand, 22 February 5 March 1994RECOMMENDATIONSTo ACCU1. ACCU should continue to organize this kindof workshop in co-operation with UNESCOevery year at the sub-regional level, forachieving the goal of "Education for All"2. ACCU should continue to organize subregional workshop in co-operation withUNESCO on the development of basicliteracy materials for minority peoples inother sub-regions and disseminate theresults of the workshop widely through theregional, sub-- agional and nationalworkshops.3. ACCU should organize workshops incollaboration with NGOs and MemberStates on the development of basic literacymaterials for the following mostdisadvantaged target groups:a) girls and women, b) tribal / culturalgroups, c) disabled persons, d) languagediversities, e) street children, f) urban poorand slum-dwellers4. ACCU should continue to extend technicaland financial assistance to the MemberStates in co-operation with UNESCO forthe development of literacy materials andfollow-up activities in respective countries.5. ACCU should cooperate to organize thenational workshops by sending mobileteam of experts in member countries todevelop materials in mother tongue as wellas in national language for minority peoples6. ACCU should deal with the aspects oftraining of literacy personnel such asteachers, facilitators and field workers.7. ACCU should provide prototypes of ba

participants from nine countries of South-east Asia actively took part in the Workshop and three resource . ations as to whether they use indigenous script, national script, no script at all, etc. . in Asia/Pacific (9 South-east Asian countries):