Multicultural Education: A Way forward for Promoting Educational Status of Scheduled Tribes

Abstract

India has largest Scheduled Tribe population in the world. In India north and central part are dominated by Scheduled Tribe population. Education is the only catalyst for the upliftment of this oppressed tribe. But most of the schools do not blend well into the tribal environment, fails to inculcate the tribal culture and also fails to provide appropriate pedagogy, appropriate medium of instruction, provide less motivation and less opportunity to think freely. For these reasons the teachers, curriculum and other teaching-learning process face lots of challenges for education of tribes. In this context different dimensions of multicultural education can be maintained for the educational development of those tribal students. Multicultural education is an approach which is an important concept for reforming school and also helps to promote educational equity for the students coming from different background. Through multicultural education social justice can be promoted. In this paper the researchers try to know the educational status of Scheduled Tribes in India with highlighting the challenges faced by them in education system and lastly focus on the role of different dimensions of multicultural education for promoting educational status of Scheduled Tribe.