“We know how important education in the mother language is for learning outcomes,” declared Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, 21 February 2011. “Mother language instruction is a powerful way to fight discrimination and reach out to marginalized populations.”

“Projects on Linguistic Diversity and New Technologies”, UNESCO’s IMLD information meeting, will feature debates on ICTs and bilingual education. Amidou Maïga and Papa Youga Dieng, programme leaders at Department of Education and Training Organisation internationale de la Francophonie will present, respectively, an overview of language teaching in multilingual contexts, notably the use of ICTs in the «School and national Language»  project (which aims to promote bilingual and multilingual education) and the use of ICTs in the Francophone Initiative on Distance Education for Teacher Training (IFADEM).

Celebrated annually since 2000, International Mother Language Day provides an occasion to recognize the vital importance of languages in education and to mobilize efforts in favour of multilingualism and linguistic diversity.

Source: unesco.org