Message of the Secretary-General of UNESCO on the Occasion of the International Day of Mother language
Araz News: Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO has written a message on the occasion of International Mother Language on 16 Feb.
She said:” 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.”
UNESCO celebrates International Mother Language Day (IMLD) on 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 playing an important role in promoting sustainable futures.
What is multilingual education?
Multilingual education facilitates access to education while promoting equity for populations speaking minority and/or indigenous languages, especially girls and women:
- It emphasizes the quality of teaching and learning with a focus on understanding and creativity;
- It reinforces the cognitive aspect of learning by ensuring the direct application of learning outcomes to the learner’s life through the mother tongue
- It enhances dialogue and interaction between learner and teacher by allowing genuine communication from the beginning.
- It facilitates participation and action in society and gives access to new knowledge and cultural expressions, thus ensuring a harmonious interaction between the global and the local.
It should be noted that Azerbaijani Turkic, the mother language of South Azerbaijani children, is not yet the language of education among the children in South Azerbaijan. This is one of the key issues and the unacceptability of status quo ought to be communicated to the Islamic Republic of Iran strengthened by dispatching a fact-finding mission to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
By-R.B
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