Sikkim’s Lepcha-language schools: teaching a mother tongue back to its children

The Lepcha language, spoken fluently by perhaps 30,000 people worldwide, is being taught back to its children in a network of community schools across Dzongu and beyond.

The curriculum pairs the written script — itself in revival — with the stories, songs and plant names the language carries.

Teachers measure success in small victories: a classroom of children who argue in Lepcha about football.