International Mother Language Day 2023

The 24th edition of International Mother Language Day will focus on the theme ‘multilingual education – a necessity to transform education’.

Multilingual education based on mother-tongue facilitates access to and inclusion in learning for population groups that speak non-dominant languages, languages of minority groups and indigenous languages.

The International Mother Language Day 2023 edition will explore the theme ‘multilingual education – a necessity to transform education.’ It will explore and debate the potential of multilingualism to transform education from a lifelong learning perspective and in different contexts. It is shaped around the following three inter-connected themes:

• Enhancing multilingual education as a necessity to transform education in multilingual contexts from early childhood education and well beyond;

• Supporting learning through multilingual education and multilingualism in our fast-changing global contexts and in crisis situations including emergencies contexts;

• Revitalizing languages that are disappearing or are threatened with extinction.

Objectives

The overall aim of the International Mother Language Day (IMLD) 2023 is to contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 by recognizing the role of actors in education and in related fields in promoting multilingualism and multilingual education, and in fostering quality, inclusive and equitable learning. More specifically, IMLD 2023 aims to:

• Further sensitize actors in education, teachers, education policy-makers of the transformative power of multilingualism and multilingual education;

• Support actors in education, teachers, education policy-makers in the strengthening of

multilingualism and multilingual education by highlighting and sharing promising and

innovative policies and practices.

UNESCO particularly calls on the international community to support the African States in their actions to develop multilingual learning. A recent report from UNESCO, Born To Learn, shows that at most one in five children are taught in their mother tongue in Africa, the continent with the highest linguistic diversity. This is detrimental to learning outcomes on the continent, where only one in five pupils master the basics of reading, writing and mathematics even after completing primary school.

UNESCO points to the success of Mozambique, which recently expanded bilingual education to 25% of schools with a new teacher training curriculum. Children learning in these schools are performing around 15% higher in basic reading and mathematics. For this success to extend to the entire continent, the international community must mobilize more funds for African countries investing in this area.

I work in Tanzania where over 120 languages are spoken, yet when children arrive in Primary School they are all taught in Kiswahili.As expected, some of these learners start to fail as they do not understand the language of instruction.

In the School Readiness Programme (SRP) of TIE/Shule Bora, bilingual community volunteers provide a successful accelerated learning programme of just 12 weeks to provide a smoother transition for children living a long distance away from the nearest school and who may not know the language of instruction.

Even though the SRP is community led and implemented by Community Teaching Assistants, learners not only survive the transition to primary school, but actually thrive.

CTAs proud of making their own teaching and learning aids for their SRP centres.

Here are some comments from teachers of standard 1 who were accommodating children from School Readiness Centres as well as their own pre-primary learners:

‘The children who had the opportunity to learn at the School Readiness centres in ItilimaDC have shown great enthusiasm and the ability to learn and speak Swahili easily, unlike those who left home without pre-primary. They are also confident, very cheerful, and have the ability to learn and sing many songs.‘

‘The School Readiness programme is a liberation for the community.’

Children ‘Graduating’ from a School Readiness class in Pwani,Tanzania.

The idea of a graduation ceremony is to provide a first sense of success as learners transition to Primary School, which is often fraught with fear and trepidation.

From Cultural Survival:

Keepers of the Earth Fund – Denver Breda from Cultural Survival on Vimeo.

UNDRIP Article 13: Right to Language
Article 13 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states: “Indigenous Peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons…”

Language Revival Initiatives In Asia Linguists have predicted and also warned that half of all the 7,000 languages currently spoken will go silent by the end of the century. Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) a regional umbrella organization of Indigenous Peoples Organization in Asia, following the official launch of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, starting from 2022 and continuing until 2032, has specifically focused plans for revival, revitalization, and strengthening of Indigenous languages and cultures in Asia.

Learn about the International Decade of Indigenous Languages

On December 18, 2019, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 2022-2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.