Home Literacy Environment: A Factor in the Educational Disadvantage of Learners

The children bring their academic disadvantage with them to school from home, has been a source of debate among educators and policy makers for several years. Educational disadvantage is ischolar_mained in the social and economic factors that characterize the communities and families in which children reside. In multilingual societies which are the norm in most regions of India, linguistic and cultural differences of minority groups are translated into a low level of power influencing academic achievement of minority children. And the school reflects this position when the minority children’s language is viewed as a restricted code. Preliterate children are often seen as a group that has learning problems at school and thus has less chance of school success. The relationship between “home language” and “school language” is far more complex than a simple deficit in language level and the sociocultural background of a learner. Therefore, this paper attempts to list the various factors that can contribute to the disadvantage of preliterate learners. This is done by conducting interviews with a class of high school learners from one particular preliterate community in India.

To address this disadvantage it is necessary for teachers to understand the factors contributing to educational disadvantage. They need to understand the importance of the community in children’s lives and be aware of the cultural and value differences which children bring into the classroom. If not specialized programs at least support is required for such learners to succeed. Finally, this paper argues for the need for teachers to practice an extended teacher role.