As the International Mother Language Day (IMLD) holds today, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has called on nations to pursue a policy of multilingual education.
It also advised that children should be taught in their mother tongue during the earliest years of their schooling, which can be combined with the official language of instruction, an approach known as multilingual education.
The Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, said: “To help fight the current global learning crisis, while preserving the linguistic diversity, which is an essential cultural element, UNESCO urges governments to embrace multilingual education based on the mother tongue from the earliest years of schooling. We know it works – there is empirical evidence to prove it helps children learn.”
On the yearly event, which holds every February 21, the global agency also reminded the world of the importance of safeguarding indigenous languages. At least 40 per cent of the more than 6,700 languages spoken around the world are threatened with extinction in the long term, due to a lack of speakers.
UNESCO leads the Indigenous Languages Decade 2022-2032, a 10-year action plan to draw the world’s attention to the critical loss of indigenous languages and the urgent need to preserve, revitalise and celebrate them.
