Like other South Asian nations, Nepal is home to great linguistic diversity. This diversity, however, poses a serious challenge to children with diverse settings. In this context, World Education Forum in Dakar was held in 2000 “to ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls and children from ethnic minorities, have access to complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality”. To achieve this goal and make education equitable and accessible to children with different linguistic backgrounds it was deemed essential to introduce education mainly through the medium of their mother tongues. “Since effective teaching depends on clear and understandable communication, the language of instruction is at the heart of any learning process. For this reason, mother tongue-based instruction is crucial to providing children with early access to education and to enabling them to participate in learning processes according to their evolving capacities” (Shaeffer 2007). Besides achieving quality education, multilingual education (MLE) is also necessary for helping children’s cognitive development, reducing their high repetition and drop-out rates, strengthening their self-confidence, and so forth.

With the global realization of the advantages of mother tongue-based multilingual education Nepal has also introduced it in children’s education. Recently, constitutional and statutory provisions such as Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007), Education for All (2004-09), School Sector Reform (SSR) Plan (2009-15), Multilingual Education Implementation Guidelines (2010), etc. have been made to support MLE in the country. The bilingual education programme for non-Nepali speaking students (2006-08) at Ministry of Education with technical support from Government of Finland has been a major step in implementing MLE in Nepalese schools. Curriculum Development Centre has so far developed curricula and textbooks in 19 mother tongues as optional subjects while NCED has been conducting trainings and workshops to school mother tongue teachers. UNESCO has been assisting in creating awareness about MLE-related issues through organizing conferences and workshops and making reading materials available in local languages.

With a view to regulating the MLE-related issues it was felt necessary to establish a resource centre. Multilingual Education Resource Centre (MLERC) has been set up by CERID, Tribhuvan University with support from Ministry of Education, UNESCO Office in Kathmandu, and MLE-interested academics and institutions from Nepal and abroad. The Centre is an essential outcome of the recent ongoing MLE debates and activities undertaken in the country. It envisages to regulate the MLE provisions and mobilize additional resources for the effective implementation of the MLE plans and strategies. It may help in bringing uniformity in implementing MLE strategies through its central and local agencies on an institutional basis. In its initial phase the MLERC intends to cater for:

1. Developing its website;
2. Developing MLE bibliography;
3. Collecting MLE-related materials and setting up an MLE library;
4. Publishing an MLE Newsletter;
5. Translating and adapting Advocacy Kit for Promoting Multilingual Education: Including the Excluded from English into Avadhi language; and
6. Forming an MLE advisory committee.