Large or small, Indo-European or Inuit, endangered or killer, let’s celebrate our mother tongues on UNESCO‘s International Mother Language Day!
We don’t all die for language rights, like the Bangla-speaking students of the University of Dhaka who were killed on 21 February 1952, protesting the then Government of Pakistan’s decision to promote Urdu as the sole national language. But we CAN support this year’s theme which is yes! “Mother tongue instruction and inclusive education”.
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In London The Central Ekushe Celebration Committee (Bengali Workers’ Association) is celebrating International Mother Language Day 2012 on the evening of Monday 20th February 2012 and on the afternoon of Sunday 26th February 2012.
The Unesco website has a feature on Mother Language Day with audio recordings in Arabic, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian and English about bilingual education. The English language recording was made by yours truly (also available here).
I’m very pleased to announce that on International Mother Language Day this year, the principal of the local indigenous school that I’m dealing with, an independent school that, until 2010, had a very successful bilingual education program, met with the organisation that administers the school and told them how much they wanted bilingual education brought back. The result was the organisation agreeing to do what they could to help the school, meaning that two-way eduction may return here in 2013!
Of course by then there’ll have been three years of kids to have gone through without having been taught any literacy in their first language.
Wow that’s awesome news Aidan!!