Focused on the socio-economic background of tribal students in the 142 ashram schools of Koraput district in Odisha, this article explores the educational environment and quality of education for tribal children in India. As their educational performance is largely unsatisfactory, the primary causes behind low educational achievements are explored. It is found that the educational processes largely disregard the socio-cultural characteristics and linguistic skills that tribal students bring to the classroom. Specifically, tribal children experience serious language difficulties during the initial years of schooling. The practice of using the dominant state language, Odia, as the sole/dominant medium of instruction in all ashram schools, rather than the children’s mother tongue, appears to leave young learners illiterate in their mother tongue and also fosters low achievement levels in the dominant language.

中文翻译：

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奥里萨邦的部落儿童及其接受母语教育的权利

本文着眼于奥里萨邦科拉普特地区 142 所修道院学校的部落学生的社会经济背景，探讨了印度部落儿童的教育环境和教育质量。由于他们的教育表现在很大程度上不令人满意，因此探讨了教育成就低的主要原因。研究发现，教育过程在很大程度上忽视了部落学生带入课堂的社会文化特征和语言技能。具体而言，部落儿童在上学的最初几年会遇到严重的语言困难。在所有修行学校使用主要的国家语言 Odia 作为唯一/主要教学语言而不是儿童的母语的做法，