The Western Tamang Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) programme is a collaboration with Shree Dongden Devi Secondary School and Shree Gothen Basic School in Ruby Valley Rural Municipality of Dhading, Nepal. This programme aims to make a sustainable impact by introducing the MTB-MLE approach to local government schools situated in remote monolingual communities. The four-year programme will help monolingual Tamang children progress from their first language to integrate into the Nepali-medium public education system across kindergarten to Grade 3.

The programme provides technical support to introduce child-centered and interactive learning instructional design and teaching methodology using the government curriculum. It works with the community to produce Western Tamang language subject materials, supplementary materials for Nepali and English, as well as providing regular pre-service and in-service teacher training.

In the programme, Western Tamang children are taught beginning literacy, number concept and general knowledge in their mother tongue (L1) in kindergarten. This prepares them for the mainstream education from Grade 1 onwards, learning Nepali (L2) and English (L2) on top of their mother tongue as a language subject. The language of instruction (LoI) for other subjects also transits gradually from L1 to L2 over the four-year programme period. Teachers teach using both L1 and L2 interchangeably based on their discretion of students’ readiness.