Africa-Press – Angola. The director of the Institute of National Languages (ILN), José Pedro, defended, Tuesday, in Luanda, the continuous transmission of mother tongues to the new generation, especially those of regional origin, an act that should start from childhood.
For the director, it is necessary that parents and guardians do not fail to transmit such knowledge, in order to preserve a part of the national identity itself. “We have to give children more information about their mother tongues, even before they learn more about other languages”.
In an interview, on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day, celebrated yesterday, the director highlighted the motto of this year’s edition: “Multilingual education a necessity to transform Education”.
José Pedro considered multilingual education, based on the mother tongue, a step towards facilitating access and inclusion in learning for population groups that speak non-dominant languages, generally composed of a minority population. “About the date, it is still important to highlight the respect for cultural and linguistic diversity”, he said.
The realization of awareness campaigns, he added, is a necessary measure, as it helps to create a feeling of tolerance and respect for the preservation of the cultural and linguistic heritage of the various peoples of the world. “Multilingual and multicultural societies exist through their languages that transmit and preserve traditional knowledge and cultures in a sustainable way”, she said.
The ILN director advanced that linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear in the world. “According to statistics, 40 percent of the world’s population does not have access to education, nor speak or understand a language.”
José Pedro recalled that several advances are being made in multilingual education with the growing understanding of its importance, particularly in early childhood education. “However, the challenge for the inclusion of mother tongues in schools is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 4, which challenges Member States to guarantee an inclusive and quality education for all and to promote learning by over time,” he noted.
Mother tongues, he recalled, remain alive, “if everyone is not afraid to speak them and if we show interest in learning from parents or people who master them”. for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), for whom
“the vitality of languages depends on the union and protection of all those who speak them”.
International Mother Language Day
International Mother Language Day is celebrated annually on February 21 and aims to promote, preserve and protect all languages spoken by people around the world.
According to UNESCO, it is estimated that there are over 7,000 languages across the globe. However, half of these are at risk of disappearing.
date origin
The International Modern Language Day was proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1999, being celebrated in all its member countries, with the aim of promoting linguistic and cultural diversity, among the different nations.
On the date, a group of students organized a campaign to include Bengali as one of the official languages of Pakistan, in
February 21, 1952. However, they were all murdered by police forces.
This movement in favor of the inclusion of Bengali began when Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a Pakistani general, declared that the Urdu language would become the official language in both West and East Pakistan (where Bengali was the main language).
The choice of February 21 to commemorate International Mother Language Day serves to remind the world’s population of the tragedy that occurred in February 1952, in the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
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