Global Community Marks International Mother Language Day proclaimed by UNESCO

UNESCO celebrates International Mother Language Day (IMLD) Today, February 21, 2017 under the theme “Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education”. 

To foster sustainable development, learners must have access to education in their mother tongue and in other languages. 
It is through the mastery of the first language or mother tongue that the basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy are acquired. 

Local languages, especially minority and indigenous, transmit cultures, values and traditional knowledge, thus play an important role in promoting sustainable futures.

International Mother Language Day (IMLD) is a worldwide annual observance held on 21st February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. 

The day, first announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999, was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages.

International Mother Language Day has been observed since 2000 to promote peace and multilingualism.

"On the occasion of this Day, I launch an appeal for the potential of multilingual education to be acknowledged everywhere, in education and administrative systems, in cultural expressions and the media, cyberspace and trade,"  Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General  has stated.

It is a social movement built on the spirit to defend the rights to write in one's mother language towards sustainable futures through multilingual education.



News-desk report by Ruth Abla Adjorlolo.


GBC