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Bangladesh’s interim leader, who took over after a mass uprising last year, will meet powerful parties pressuring his government later on Saturday, days after he reportedly threatened to quit.Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads the caretaker government as its chief adviser until elections are held, has called for rival political parties jostling for power to give him their full support.His press secretary Shafiqul Alam confirmed Yunus would meet leaders of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as well as leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim-majority nation’s largest Islamist party.”He is meeting BNP and Jamaat leaders this evening,” Alam told AFP.No agenda for the talks has been released.But the BNP, seen as the front-runners in elections, are pushing heavily for polls to be held by December. They would be the first elections since a student-led revolt forced then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee in August 2024.Microfinance pioneer Yunus, who has led the country after returning from exile at the behest of protesters, says he has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections.Yunus has said polls could be held as early as December, but that holding them later — with a deadline of June — would give more time for those changes.- ‘Reconsider our support’ -The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since Hasina fled, but this week has seen an escalation with rival parties protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka with a string of competing demands.”Our senior members will be there for the talks,” said BNP media official Shairul Kabir Khan.Jamaat-e-Islami’s media spokesperson Ataur Rahman Sarkar also confirmed that they were invited.On Thursday, a political ally and sources in his office said Yunus had threatened to resign if Bangladesh’s parties and factions did not back him.That came a day after BNP supporters held large-scale protests against the interim government for the first time demanding an election date.”If he is unable to announce a specific election date by December, we will reconsider our support for his administration,” senior BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed said in an interview on a private TV channel broadcast on Friday.According to local media and military sources, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman this week also said that elections should be held by December — aligning with BNP demands.Bangladesh has a long history of military coups, and the army retains a powerful role in the country.- ‘Trying to assume power’ -Jamaat-e-Islami loyalists have also protested against the government, demanding the abolition of a women’s commission seeking equality.Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party — made up of many of the students who spearheaded the uprising against Hasina — said his party meanwhile wanted later elections to give time for change.The students wanted “fundamental reforms” to Bangladesh’s system of governance, Islam, an ally of Yunus, told reporters on Friday, according to the Prothom Alo newspaper.But he said rival parties considered the overthrow of Hasina to be “regime change and are trying to assume power” under the existing constitution.”There are efforts to create an unstable situation in the country,” Islam added. “We must remain united and not fall into the trap.”Hasina, 77, remains in self-imposed exile in India.She has defied an arrest warrant to face trial for crimes against humanity related to last year’s police crackdown on protesters during which at least 1,400 were killed.

Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus “needs to remain” in office as interim leader to ensure a peaceful transition of power, a cabinet member and special adviser to Yunus said Friday.Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over after a mass uprising last year, had threatened to quit the job if parties did not give him their backing, a political ally and sources in his office said.The South Asian nation has been in political turmoil since the student-led revolt that toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, with parties protesting on the streets over a string of demands.”For the sake of Bangladesh and a peaceful democratic transition, Professor Yunus needs to remain in office,” Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, a special assistant to Yunus, and head of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, said in a post on Facebook.”The Chief Adviser is not going to step down,” he added. “He does not hanker after power.”He later deleted his post.Bangladesh’s political crisis has escalated this week, with rival parties protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka with a string of competing demands.Yunus’s reported threat to stand down came after thousands of supporters of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallied in Dhaka on Wednesday, holding large-scale protests against the interim government for the first time.Yunus has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest in the Muslim-majority nation of around 170 million people.But supporters of the BNP — seen as front-runners in the highly anticipated elections that will be the first since Hasina was overthrown — demanded he fix a date.- ‘Chaotic phase’ -Yunus’s relationship with the military has also reportedly deteriorated.According to local media and military sources, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said on Wednesday that elections should be held by December, warning that Bangladesh was in a “chaotic phase” and that the “situation is worsening by the day”.Taiyeb issued a warning to the army on Friday. “The army can’t meddle in politics,” he wrote.”The army doesn’t do that in any civilised country,” he added.”By saying that the election has to be held by December, the military chief failed to maintain his jurisdictional correctness.”- ‘Excessive restriction’ -The army played a decisive role in the ending of Hasina’s rule by not stepping in to quash the uprising, after at least 1,400 protesters were killed in a police crackdown.It was Waker-Uz-Zaman who announced that Hasina had been overthrown, with the military taking brief control, before handing over to Yunus.The army issued a statement late on Thursday it said was aimed to combat those seeking to create divisions between the military and the public.”Some vested interest groups are circulating misleading information and trying to create a divide between the army and the general public,” the army said in a statement late Thursday.It released a list of the hundreds of people it had briefly sheltered inside army bases in the chaotic days following Hasina’s ouster “to save them from extrajudicial killings”.Among those the army said it sheltered to “save lives” were 24 political figures, as well as judges, civil service staff, academics and more 525 police personnel.The army did not give details on those it accused of seeking to undermine its support.The National Citizen Party (NCP) — made up of many of the students who spearheaded the uprising against Hasina, and a group close to Yunus  — has previously accused of the army of supporting Hasina’s Awami League party.Hasina, 77, remains in self-imposed exile in India, where she has defied an arrest warrant to face trial for crimes against humanity related to the police crackdown.The government banned the Awami League this month after protests outside Yunus’s house, a move that sparked criticism from Human Rights Watch, calling it an “excessive restriction on fundamental freedoms that mirrors the previous government’s abusive clampdown”.

Sri Lanka’s former skipper Angelo Mathews said on Friday he will retire from Test cricket after playing in the first match against Bangladesh next month but will continue white-ball cricket.The 37-year-old veteran will leave the longest format of the game after a Test career of 16 years, which began with a match against Pakistan in July 2009 at the Galle stadium. His final Test appearance, his 119th, will also be at the same venue from June 17.However, he will not play in the second Test against Bangladesh.”I stand grateful to the game and thankful to the thousands of Sri Lanka cricket fans who have been there for me throughout my career during my highest of highs and lowest of lows,” he said in a statement.”Now seems like the best time to make way for a younger player to take the mantle to shine for our nation.”There was no immediate comment from Sri Lanka Cricket.A former captain in all three formats of the game, Mathews has been a mainstay in Sri Lanka’s middle order.He has scored 8,167 runs in the 118 Tests he has played so far. He has also taken 33 wickets, giving away 1,798 runs.

The banning of fugitive ex-leader Sheikh Hasina’s party offers a sliver of justice for Bangladeshis demanding she face trial for crimes against humanity but also raises concerns about the inclusivity of elections.”The government has taken the right decision,” said Jahangir Alam, whose 19-year-old son was killed during the mass uprising that forced Hasina into exile in August 2024, ending the 15 years of iron-fisted control by her once all-powerful Awami League party.”Because of her, the Awami League is now ruined,” Alam said, demanding Hasina return from India to comply with the arrest warrant on charges related to the crackdown that killed at least 1,400 protesters.”Who gave Sheikh Hasina the authority to kill my son?” said Alam, the father of Ibrahim Hossain Zahid, accusing 77-year-old Hasina of being a “mass murderer”.Bangladesh’s oldest political party played a key role in the country’s liberation war from Pakistan in 1971 and was once led by Hasina’s late father, the nation’s founding figure, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.”People used to hang Mujib’s photo over their heads,” he said. “Because of Sheikh Hasina’s wrongdoing, that photo is now under our feet.”- ‘Democratic space may shrink’ -Political fortunes rise and fall quickly in Bangladesh.Hasina’s government was blamed for extensive human rights abuses and protesters demanded that the interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus take action.The South Asian nation of some 170 million people last held elections in January 2024, when Hasina won a fourth term in the absence of genuine opposition parties.Yunus promises that inclusive elections will be held by June 2026 at the latest.Among those demanding the Awami League ban was the National Citizen’s Party made up of many of the students who spearheaded last year’s uprising.Others were supporters of the Hefazat-e-Islam group and Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist political party.Jamaat-e-Islami was banned during Hasina’s time in power and several of its leaders were tried and hanged. Unsurprisingly, its members were vocal supporters of the ban.The government banned the Awami League on May 12 after protests outside Yunus’s home, pending the trial of Hasina.”The oppressed have begun becoming oppressors,” said Latif Siddiqui, a veteran Awami League member and former minister, adding that the party was wider than Hasina alone.”She is not the whole Awami League,” he said. “Many loved the party.”Human Rights Watch issued stinging criticism on Thursday, warning that “imposing a ban on any speech or activity deemed supportive of a political party is an excessive restriction on fundamental freedoms that mirrors the previous government’s abusive clampdown”.However, political analyst Farhad Mazhar, an ideological guru for many student protesters, said the ban was required.”The democratic space may shrink, but the Awami League has shown no remorse,” Mazhar said.- ‘Stripping the voting rights’ -However, Jatiya Party chairman GM Quader said that banning any party stifled democracy.”We believe in multi-party democracy,” he said.His party had been close with the Awami League under Hasina, Quader said, but it had also opposed the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami.”We don’t support banning any political party that… follows the rules,” Quader said. Jamaat-e-Islami supported Islamabad during Bangladesh’s independence war from Pakistan in 1971. Rivals now question if it, too, should be restricted for its historical role.”If the Awami League is banned for mass murder, then the question arises — what will happen to those parties that were involved in genocide, directly or indirectly?” Quader said.”In the history of Bangladesh, the most people were killed during the Liberation War.”The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), widely tipped to win the elections when they happen, has taken a more pragmatic approach.Key leader Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury has said there is no bar on former Awami League loyalists joining his party, so long as they had not previously worked to “suppress”  the BNP.Regardless, the upcoming vote will now take place without what was one of Bangladesh’s most popular parties.Mamun Al Mostofa, professor of political science at Dhaka University, pointed out the party had been “banned before and went through severe crises… but it made a comeback”.Shahdeen Malik, a Supreme Court lawyer and constitutional expert, said a strong opposition helped support democracy.”AL had a vote bank of around 30 percent of the total electorate,” Malik said, noting that Hasina escalated her grip on power after crushing opponents in the 2008 election.”Due to their atrocities, they may have lost some of that support — but it is still unlikely to drop below 20 percent,” he said.”Stripping the voting rights of this 20 percent won’t benefit anyone.”

Mitchell Marsh struck his first Indian Premier League century as Lucknow Super Giants pulled off an upset 33-run win against table-toppers Gujarat Titans on Thursday.Marsh smashed 117 off 64 balls studded with 10 fours and eight sixes to help Lucknow post a formidable 235-2 off 20 overs.Gujarat, who have already qualified for the playoffs, could only make 202-9 in reply at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.”We gave 15-20 runs extra. If we’d stopped them at 210-220 it would’ve been better, that was a huge difference,” said Gujarat skipper Shubman Gill.”Getting momentum back will be key in the next game.”Lucknow were playing for pride after being eliminated from the playoffs.   Gujarat lost in-form opener and the tournament’s highest run-getter Sai Sudharsan for 21, caught by Aiden Markram off Will O’Rourke, who ended with figures of 3-27.Sudharsan’s opening partner Gill looked in good touch before he was caught in the deep by Abdul Samad off Avesh Khan for 35.Jos Buttler (33) tried to steady the innings but was dismissed by Akash Singh in the 10th over.Shahrukh Khan (57) and Sherfane Rutherford (38) revived hopes of a comeback but O’Rourke took two wickets in the 17th over to seal Gujarat’s fate.”We had a lot of fun out there, T20 is fickle,” said O’Rourke.Earlier, Marsh combined with Markram to give Lucknow a steady start, putting on 91 runs for the opening wicket after Gujarat won the toss and elected to bowl.Markram (36) hit fellow South African Kagiso Rabada for two sixes in a row before being caught by Shahrukh near the boundary off Sai Kishore.Marsh continued his onslaught at the other end, hitting Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan for 25 runs in his first over of the game.The right-hander, who raced to his century off just 56 balls, was finally caught by a diving Rutherford off paceman Arshad Khan for 117.Nicholas Pooran also impressed, making an unbeaten 56 runs off 27 balls with four fours and five sixes.Lucknow’s struggling skipper Rishabh Pant made 16 not out.The IPL resumed last Saturday after being paused due to a deadly conflict between India and Pakistan, forcing overseas players to revisit their season plans.

Bangladesh’s interim leader, who took over after a mass uprising last year, has threatened to resign if parties do not give him their backing, a political ally and sources in his office said Thursday.The South Asian nation of some 170 million people has been in political turmoil since a student-led revolt forced then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee in August 2024.But this week has seen an escalation in political crisis with rival parties protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka with a string of competing demands.Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads the caretaker government as its chief advisor until elections, told his cabinet he wanted to quit if political parties did not give him their full support, a source inside his office said. “He wanted to tender his resignation, but his cabinet members persuaded him not to”, the source told AFP.- ‘Reconsidering’ -Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party — made up of many of the students who spearheaded the uprising against Hasina — met with Yunus on Thursday evening, another top NCP leader Ariful Islam Adeeb said.”They spoke about the current political situation”, Adeeb told AFP.”The chief adviser said he is reconsidering whether he can continue his duties under the current circumstances”.But Nahid Islam — who had initially been part of Yunus’s cabinet before resigning to form a political party — “urged him to remain in office”, Adeeb said.Shafiqur Rahman, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party, has urged Yunus to call an all-party meeting to address the crisis, a party official said.- ‘Chaotic phase’ -Yunus’s reported threat to stand down comes a day after thousands of supporters of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallied in Dhaka, holding large-scale protests against the interim government for the first time.Yunus has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest, but supporters of the BNP — seen as the frontrunners in highly anticipated elections that will be the first since Hasina was overthrown — demanded he fix a date.”If the government fails to meet public expectations, it will be difficult for the BNP to continue extending its support,” senior BNP leader Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain told reporters Thursday. “The highest priority should be placed on announcing a clear roadmap for the election”.The BNP also demanded Yunus sack two members of this cabinet, accusing them of being close to the NCP, as well as well as the national security advisor.”Their presence in the council of advisers raises questions about the nonpartisan and impartial nature of the government,” Hossain said.”It seems the government is pushing forward the agenda of a particular group.” Yunus’s relationship with the military has also reportedly deteriorated. On Wednesday, it was reported that powerful army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said elections should be held by December.”Bangladesh is passing through a chaotic phase,” Waker-Uz-Zaman was quoted by newspapers as saying.”The situation is worsening by the day. The structure of the civil administration and law enforcement agencies has collapsed and failed to reconstitute.”

Two weeks after Pakistan and India’s most intense military clashes in decades, clearance teams along the border comb through fields for unexploded shells so residents can safely build back from the rubble of their homes.Around 70 people, mostly Pakistanis, were killed in the four-day conflict that spread beyond divided Kashmir, over which the neighbours have fought three major wars.The military confrontation — involving intense tit-for-tat drone, missile, aerial combat and artillery exchanges — came to an abrupt end after US President Donald Trump announced a surprise ceasefire, which is still holding.On the Pakistan side of Kashmir, 500 buildings were damaged or destroyed — including nearly 50 in the picturesque Neelum Valley, where two people were killed.”There is a possibility that there are unexploded shells still embedded in the ground,” said local official Muhammad Kamran, who has been helping clear educational institutions near the border.Unexploded ordnance dating from conflicts past killed several children in 2021 and 2022 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.- ‘We are brave’ -Headmaster Muhammad Zubair follows a mine detector into a classroom of his high school in the valley where a writing on a whiteboard standing in the debris reads “we are brave” in English.”Although the fighting has stopped, people still hold so much fear and anxiety,” he told AFP.”Despite calling them back to school, children are not showing up.”Abdul Rasheed, a power department official, said he worked “day and night” to repair power lines damaged by Indian firing.Over the years, investment in roads has helped to create a modest tourism sector in the Neelum Valley, attracting Pakistanis who come to marvel at the Himalayan mountains.Hotels reopened on Monday, but they remain deserted in the middle of peak season.Alif Jan, 76, who has lived through multiple clashes between the two sides, is yet to call her grandchildren back to her border village after sending them away during the latest hostilities.”It was a very difficult time. It was like doomsday had arrived,” she said.The children were sent to Pakistan-held Kashmir’s main city of Muzaffarabad, usually safe but this time targeted with an Indian air strike.- Waiting for compensation -Jan wants to be certain the fighting doesn’t resume and that she has enough to feed them before they eventually return.In a schoolyard, she collects a 20-kilogram (45-pound) bag of flour, a can of oil, and some medicine from a local NGO.Thousands of other families are still waiting to be relocated or compensated for damage.”We have identified 5,000 families,” said Fawad Aslam, the programme manager of local aid group.”Our first priority is families who suffered direct damage, while the second priority is those who were forced to migrate — people who had to leave their homes and are now living in camps or temporary shelters.”For 25-year-old Numan Butt whose brother was killed by shrapnel, the aid is little consolation.”This conflict keeps coming upon us; this oppression is ongoing,” he told AFP.”It is a good thing that they have agreed to peace, but the brother I have lost will never come back.”

Bangladesh’s powerful army chief has said the first elections since the country’s former leader was ousted in a mass uprising should be held by December, local media reported and military sources confirmed on Thursday.General Waker-Uz-Zaman was reported to have told officers on Wednesday that elections should be held by December this year — if not earlier, according to Bangladeshi newspapers.The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since the student-led revolt that ousted then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August, with parties protesting on the streets making rafts of demands.”Bangladesh is passing through a chaotic phase,” Waker-Uz-Zaman said, according to the newspapers.”The situation is worsening by the day. The structure of the civil administration and law enforcement agencies has collapsed and failed to reconstitute.”No date has been set for elections but interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest.But the key Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the front-runners in the elections, have repeatedly demanded an election date.The BNP on Wednesday held protests in the capital Dhaka, significant in that they for the first time demonstrated against the caretaker government.In response to a question from an officer, the army chief reportedly said: “Elections should be held by December, if not earlier.”He also is reported to have told officers to “carry out your duties with honesty and impartiality during the election”.It was Waker-Uz-Zaman who announced in August last year that Hasina had been overthrown, with the military taking brief control.Days later, Waker-Uz-Zaman handed over power to Yunus, 84, who has said he will lead the caretaker government until the next elections.Lieutenant Colonel Sami-Ud-Dowla Chowdhury, the military spokesperson, confirmed that Waker-Uz-Zaman had addressed officers on Wednesday but said the “meeting was confidential”.But three sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told AFP that the army chief emphasised the urgency of holding elections and said they should be held by December.Known for his calm demeanour, Waker-Uz-Zaman appeared frustrated and dissatisfied during the session, they said.

Sometimes the only outsiders that Indian troops posted along the contested frontier in Kashmir see are Pakistani soldiers eyeballing them across the remote valley high in the rugged Himalayan mountains.Contact between them extends to what Indian soldiers posted to the fortified concrete bunkers call “hooting” — an occasional taunting shout or whistle echoing across the divide, which can be as little as 30 metres (100 feet) at its narrowest point.That’s close enough to hurl a hand grenade or, perhaps more hopefully for the arch-rivals who share a sporting passion, a well-thrown cricket ball.”There is obviously no interaction with the enemy,” an Indian officer deployed along the de facto border, dubbed the Line of Control (LoC), told AFP in a visit to positions organised by the army.Troops on each side are settling back down to an uneasy standoff a month after the deadly April 22 attack on tourists in Kashmir sent relations spiralling towards a war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the Islamist militants it said were behind the killing of 26 men in the deadliest attack on civilians in Muslim-majority Kashmir in decades. Pakistan denies the charge.Troops along the LoC began exchanging nightly gunfire two days after the attack, rattling off shots into the dark without causing casualties.India then launched strikes deep into Pakistan’s territory on May 7, triggering four days of intense drone, missile, aerial combat and artillery exchanges.- ‘See and hear’ -More than 70 people were killed on both sides, the worst conflict since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.It is still holding and the LoC is again quiet.Diplomatically, New Delhi and Islamabad seem back to an uneasy peace, trading long-standing accusations that the other supports militant groups operating in their territory.Islamabad blamed India on Wednesday for a bomb attack on a school bus that killed six people, which New Delhi called a “baseless” allegation and said it was “second nature for Pakistan to blame India for all its internal issues”. India expelled a Pakistani diplomat on Wednesday, the second since the ceasefire deal.Soldiers from either side eye each other warily across the razor’s edge of the LoC that slices through the territory, home to some 17 million people and which each side claims in full.The Indian officer pointed to a green ridge where he said Indian and Pakistani posts were about 30-40 metres apart. “There are many such places across the frontline,” he said. “Our soldiers can see and hear the other side at such posts,” said the officer, who could not be identified because he did not have official clearance to speak to the media. “There is even hooting at times, but no conversations.”When the hooting does happen, it is sometimes to taunt the other during rare cricket matches between the rival nations.For the Indian forces, the Pakistani soldiers can be the only other humans they see outside their unit for weeks when snow cuts them off in the winter months. – ‘Intense’ -The border camp had multiple well-insulated bunkers, artillery pieces covered in camouflage tarpaulins and there were several radar and air defence systems on the hills.The 770-kilometre (478-mile) LoC — the route of a ceasefire line dating back to 1949 — snakes down from icy high-altitude outposts to greener foothills in the south.A senior officer in charge of multiple artillery pieces said that, for many of the men, the four days of heavy barrages had been their “first experience” of such conflict.”It was really intense,” he said, adding that “at least 100 to 150 artillery shells fell around here”.Outposts dot the picturesque but hard-to-reach terrain of snow-clad peaks, dense forests, icy streams and ridges.A small, seemingly tranquil village in Pakistani-run Kashmir surrounded by green hills was visible across the valley.”We’ve been preparing for years — and were ready,” the artillery officer said, adding that none of his men were wounded or killed and that they “gave a befitting reply to the enemy”.Indian army officers at another frontier post pointed to a damaged Pakistani post they’d targeted.Another officer showed the long rolls of concertina razor wire along their side of the frontier, a formidable barrier to protect their mountain-top outposts.”Who holds the higher position in the Himalayas is critical in any conflict,” he said. 

Sitting together on the classroom floor in Kalyanpur in northwest India, a dozen children aged five and six are trying to identify Hindi words beginning with the “p” sound.After a spontaneous “papa”, the children unanimously agree on “papaya” — spelt out at the top of their lungs by the entire class.But for these children, born into an Indigenous tribe in Rajasthan state, learning to read in a language neither they nor their parents speak is a challenge.To break this pattern, authorities launched a programme in two Rajasthan districts to teach students to read in their mother tongue.Months after the experiment began, there is progress.”I used Hindi language with the children, but I could see that they were not responding well,” said their teacher, Jashoda Khokariya.”They were scared, and were not able to answer my questions,” she added. “Now, it’s a miracle — there is not a single child who is not able to respond.”Indian school enrolment rates are high — but performance is much lower.One key problem in the world’s most populous country, where 1.4 billion people speak a mosaic of over a hundred languages, is that primary school teaching is often in a language the children do not understand.- ‘Multilingual society’ -At the age of eight, only 39 percent of Indian students reach the required reading level.At 15, the situation is even worse. The rate drops to 10 percent.Poverty, early marriage and poor teacher training are all to blame — but language plays a part too.”We have a multilingual society; this needs to be accounted for when children come to school,” said Saadhna Panday, from the UN children’s agency (UNICEF).”Several studies have demonstrated that children learn best in the early years in their mother tongue.”But this is rarely the case.In many Indian states, students are taught in English and Hindi, of which families may have little knowledge.Since 2020, the national education ministry has said that primary education in students’ mother tongue is a priority.Rajasthan ticked all the boxes to host a pilot project.A survey in nine of its rural districts revealed the magnitude of the task: 250,000 primary school students speaking 31 languages. Three-quarters of them are far from understanding — let alone speaking — Hindi.- ‘Many obstacles’ -The programme faces multiple hurdles — one of these being that teachers are not trained to use the children’s language for formal teaching in the classroom.”There were many obstacles,” said Shweta Fageria, director of Rajasthan’s State Council of Educational Research and Training centre.”We first created dictionaries by using the local dialect,” she added, before making them trilingual with Hindi and English.At the Kuwadi Nichala Fala School, a spartan concrete building on a dusty hill, 13 first graders — aged around five to six — leaf through the dictionary every schoolday.It is a far cry from the other side of India’s education system — the ultramodern technology institutes whose prize pupils are snapped up by Californian tech giants.In the sweltering heat, the top student deciphers a few lines.He is still far from mastering reading in his native Wagdi — a language with more than three million speakers, according to the last census.But he is making great progress, like all the students in his class, according to his teacher.”They can now read words,” Lakshmi Kumari Patel said.”At this age, it takes time for a child to be confident, to actively participate,” she added. “Now they are more expressive… engaging in conversations without hesitation.”-  ‘Abysmal’ schooling – Parents are now more involved too.Since they speak the language being taught, it’s up to them to support their children by having them read and telling them stories.Lalita Parmar, 62, understands the benefits that her grandchildren’s education can bring.”They will be able to get a job, then they will earn and eat,” she said. “If one gets a job, the whole family will benefit.”The state government, UNICEF and a local partner have given themselves two years to succeed and, if necessary, to expand.”Through the programme in Rajasthan, we have seen an improvement in children’s attendance at school… teachers are more structured, more planned in using the learning materials available in the classrooms, parents are getting more involved in schools,” said Panday from UNICEF.”We expect children to have better learning outcomes.”The future of India and its economy depends on it, writes economist Ashoka Mody in his recent book, “India is Broken.””The quality of school education in India remains abysmal,” Mody wrote, noting how competitors were progressing.”India’s attempt to make progress on the cheap by unconscionably delaying these investments in education, health and cities has taken its toll.”