International Mother Language Day (IMLD) (Bengali: আন্তর্জাতিক মাতৃভাষা দিবস Antôrjatik Matribhasha Dibôs) is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. First announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999, it was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages.
The United Nations' (UN) International Mother Language Day annually celebrates language diversity and variety worldwide on February 21. It also remembers events such as the killing of four students on February 21, 1952, because they campaigned to officially use their mother language, Bengali, in Bangladesh.
Mother
languages in a multilingual approach are essential components of
quality education, which is itself the foundation for empowering women
and men and their societies.
The United Nations' (UN) International Mother Language Day annually celebrates language diversity and variety worldwide on February 21. It also remembers events such as the killing of four students on February 21, 1952, because they campaigned to officially use their mother language, Bengali, in Bangladesh.
The theme of the 2016 International Mother Language
Day is “Quality education, language(s) of instruction and learning
outcomes.”
Mother
languages in a multilingual approach are essential components of
quality education, which is itself the foundation for empowering women
and men and their societies.
International Mother Language Day is a public holiday in Bangladesh since 1953.
UNESCO brings the same focus to advancing linguistic diversity on the
Internet, through support to relevant local content as well as media and
information literacy. Through the Local and Indigenous Knowledge
Systems program-me, UNESCO is highlighting the importance of mother and
local languages as channels for safeguarding and sharing indigenous
cultures and knowledge, which are vast reservoirs of wisdom.
Mother languages in a multilingual approach are essential components of
quality education, which is itself the foundation for empowering women
and men and their societies. We must recognise and nurture this power,
in order to leave no one behind, to craft a more just and sustainable
future for all.
