The training courses, organised by the district councils in Khagrachhari, Rangamati and Bandarban, were only intended to introduce the alphabets to the teachers.

A Chakma teacher who took part in the training told The Daily Star that she could not learn much from the training and that it was not sufficient at all.

"I have been acquainted with the Chakma letters, but I still don't know how to read a text or write a sentence properly," the teacher said, wishing anonymity.

Several district education officials also admitted that the training was not adequate to make the teachers have a good grip on their languages.

Khorshed Alam, district primary education officer of Rangamati, said, "The training provided by the government was of good quality, but its duration was not enough."

Echoing his view, Siddiqur Rahman, assistant primary education officer in Bandarban, said more training is required for the teachers.

In December last year, the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) started providing a 10-day training to the ethnic language teachers in the hill districts, but there is still a long way to go.

In Sylhet, the situation is even worse as no training programme has so far been organised for ethnic language teachers there, depriving students of the opportunity to begin their schooling in mother language.

Contacted, AKM Shafayet Alam, deputy director at the department of primary education in Sylhet division, told The Daily Star the crisis of Garo and Tripura language teachers was so acute that conducting training for ethnic language teachers there was almost impossible.