Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 22nd Feb. World body said on Tuesday that multilingual education is a critical key to razing inequalities and promoting human rights for all, as the UN officials marked the International Mother Language Day.
Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the UNESCO said that commemorating the world’s languages all 6,700 of them since 1999, the Day to celebrate and showcase the world’s linguistic tapestry, committing to the preservation of the diversity of languages as a common heritage, and working for quality education – in mother tongues – for all.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres drew attention to indigenous people’s education and languages said to the gathering that “Multilingual education is the theme for this year a necessity to transform education” aligns with recommendations made during the UN Transforming Education Summit in 2021.
UNESCO’s report, 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. Some 40 per cent of the world’s students do not have access to education in the language they speak or understand best.
Ms. Azoulay said this severely undermines learning, cultural expression and the building of social relations, and significantly weakens the linguistic heritage of humanity.
“It is therefore crucial that this language issue be taken into account in the necessary exercise of transforming education,” she said.
Moving forward, better data collection is required for improved tailored action, she said.
“Above all, however, it requires a more general awareness of the irreplaceable but fragile value of the world’s linguistic and cultural diversity,” she said.
“Each of the more than 7,000 languages spoken by humanity carries within it a unique view of the world, of things and of beings, a way of thinking and feeling – so much so that each disappearance of a language constitutes an irretrievable loss.”.
UNESCO is leading the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032), an important opportunity for the world to mobilize in order to safeguard a major part of its cultural diversity. There is also a growing understanding of the importance of multilingual education, particularly in early schooling.
Fernand de Varennes, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues said that States must be more inclusive in the treatment and use of minority and indigenous languages.
“In celebrating the richness and beauty of the global linguistic tapestry, it is essential to move away from new forms of nationalist majoritarianism that assume that societies and States should have only one language to the exclusion of all others,” he said.
He said that this is inconsistent with inclusive societies that respect the human rights of linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples.
“Languages are essential tools to communicate and share knowledge, memory, and history, but they are also key to full and equal participation,” he said.
“One of the most effective ways of empowering minorities and indigenous peoples is to guarantee the use of their language in education.”
He stressed that adopting an inclusive approach is the most effective way of guaranteeing equality and non-discrimination with respect to international law and will ensure that minority and indigenous children are provided with useful literacy and numeracy skills to learn other languages.
He said rather than reducing or even eliminating the use of minority and indigenous languages in education, States should invest in the development of teaching materials, training and promoting the mother tongue as a medium of instruction.
UN has been commemorating the day, in many, many languages. Bangladesh and partners is hosting a meeting at UN Headquarters, and UNESCO held an event in France.
Mexico, UNESCO and partners are highlighted their “Untranslatable” project, book and graphic exhibit. Shaped by 68 words from 33 indigenous languages, the exhibit will travel across the country, and the book, published in 2021, is now available free on the website of the National Institute of Indigenous Languages (Inali).
Zapotec poet Irma Pineda, a partner in the project, said the goal was to promote interest and respect for the cultural and linguistic richness of Mexico.
She said that it was “for people to know that we don’t speak only Spanish, but rather 364 linguistic variants of 68 languages, and that each word of this project reflects a whole worldview and a way of thinking of many indigenous people”.
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