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<span class="gmail-author">Written by Akshan de Alwis, UN Correspondent</span>
</div><p>Languages, with their
complex implications for identity, communication, social integration,
education and development, are of strategic importance for people and
planet. Yet, due to globalization processes, they are increasingly under
threat, or disappearing altogether. When languages fade, so does the
world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions,
memory, unique modes of thinking and expression — valuable resources for
ensuring a better future — are also lost.</p>
<p>More than 50 percent of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken in
the world are likely to die out within a few generations, and 96 percent
of these languages are spoken by a mere 4 percent of the world’s
population. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given pride
of place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a
hundred are used in the digital world.</p>
<p>Cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, the promotion of
education for all and the development of knowledge societies are central
to UNESCO’s work. But they are not possible without broad and
international commitment to promoting multilingualism and linguistic
diversity, including the preservation of endangered languages.</p>
<p>While the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) has signed an agreement with the International
Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) to
measure global citizenship and sustainable development education, the
persistent marginalization of mother languages worldwide is threatening
Goal 4 of the UN for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).</p>
<p>The Agenda 2030 includes seven targets in Goal 4 that aims to “ensure
inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning
opportunities for all”.</p>
<p>The seventh target – Goal 4.7 – obliges the international community
to ensure that in the next 15 years “all learners (would) acquire the
knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development,
including, among others, through education for sustainable development
and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a
culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation
of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable
development”.</p>
<p>UNESCO relates global citizenship to the empowerment of learners to
assume active roles to face and resolve global challenges and to become
proactive contributors to a more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and
secure world.</p>
<p>But the chances that Goal 4.7 would be achieved are rather bleak
unless adequate steps are taken urgently. The reason can be deduced from
some important data released by the UNESCO on the occasion of the
International Mother Language Day, celebrated annually on February 21.</p>
<p>According to a new paper by UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring
Report (GEM Report), 40% of the global population – the combined
population of China, India and the United States – does not access
education in a language they understand.</p>
<p>Economic linguists – those that study the economics associated with
language policy – have noted that the immediate and long term economic
benefits of mother tongue education out-weigh the cost when compared to
not implementing mother tongue education policy.</p>
<p>UNESCO also points out that more than 50 per cent of about 7,000
languages spoken in the world are likely to die out within a few
generations, and 6,720 of these languages are spoken by a mere 4 per
cent or 296 million, slightly less than the population of Indonesia.
“Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in
education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are
used in the digital world,” says UNESCO.</p>
<p>The GEM Report titled ‘If you don’t understand, how can you learn?’
argues that being taught in a language other than their own can
negatively impact children’s learning, especially for those living in
poverty.</p>
<p>Marking the Mother Language Day last year, UNESCO Director-General
Irina Bokova underlined the basic principle of children learning in a
language they speak. “With a new global education agenda that
prioritizes quality, equity and lifelong learning for all, it is
essential to encourage full respect for the use of mother language in
teaching and learning, and to promote linguistic diversity. Inclusive
language education policies will not only lead to higher learning
achievement, but contribute to tolerance, social cohesion, and,
ultimately, peace.”</p>
<p>The study finds that learning improves in countries that have
invested in bilingual programs. In Guatemala, students in bilingual
schools have lower repetition and dropout rates. They also have higher
scores in all subject areas. Children in Ethiopia who participated in
bilingual programs for eight years improved their learning in subjects
across the curriculum, says the document.</p>
<p>According to the paper, countries with colonial histories often find
that shifting to bilingual education is complicated, as can be seen in
many Latin American contexts that continue to use Portuguese, or
Spanish, or in many Francophone African countries, where French remains
the predominant language of instruction.</p>
<p>The GEM Report’s World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE) shows
that this trend seriously hampers students’ chances of learning.</p>
<p>In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, 55% of grade 5 students who speak the
test language at home learned the basics in reading in 2008, compared
with only 25% of those who speak another language.</p>
<p>In Iran, 80% of grade 4 students who did not speak Farsi at home
reached the basics in reading, compared with over 95% of Farsi speakers.</p>
<p>In Honduras, in 2011, 94% of grade 6 students who spoke the language
of instruction at home learned the basics in reading compared to 62% of
those who did not.</p>
<p>In Turkey in 2012, around 50% of poor non-Turkish speaking 15 year
olds achieved minimum benchmarks in reading, against the national
average of 80%.</p>
<p>In multi-ethnic societies, including Turkey, Nepal, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Guatemala, the paper shows that imposing a dominant
language through a school system – while sometimes a choice of necessity
– has frequently been a source of grievance linked to wider issues of
social and cultural inequality.</p>
<p>Aaron Benavot, Director of UNESCO’s GEM Report says language can
serve as a double-edged sword. “While it strengthens an ethnic group’s
social ties and sense of belonging, it can also become a basis for their
marginalization. Education policy must ensure that all learners,
including minority language speakers, access school in a language they
know.”</p>
<p>The paper offers key recommendations to ensure that children are taught in a language they understand:</p>
<ol><li>At least six years of mother tongue instruction is needed so that
gains from teaching in mother tongue in the early years are sustained.</li></ol>
<ol start="2"><li>Education policies should recognize the importance of mother tongue
learning. A review of 40 countries’ education plans finds that only less
than half of them recognize the importance of teaching children in
their home language, particularly in early grades.</li></ol>
<ol start="3"><li>Teachers need to be trained to teach in two languages and to
understand the needs of second-language learners. Teachers are rarely
prepared for the reality of bilingual classrooms, including with
inclusive teaching materials and appropriate assessment strategies. In
Senegal, only 8%, and in Mali, only 2% of trained teachers expressed
confidence about teaching in local languages.</li></ol>
<p>UNESCO Director-General Bokova emphasized that “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”.</p>
<p>With this in view, UNESCO’s Education 2030 Framework for Action, a
road-map to implement the 2030 Agenda, encourages full respect for the
use of mother language in teaching and learning, and the promotion and
preservation of linguistic diversity, noted Bokova.</p>
<p>“Multilingualism is essential to drive these objectives forward – it
is vital for success across the 2030 Agenda, regarding growth,
employment and health, as well as sustainable consumption and
production, and climate change,” she added.</p>
<p>Bokova assured that 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.</p>
<p>Through the Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme,
she said, 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.</p>
<p>When it comes to the SDGs and the law, language considerations are
paramount. SDG 16, which calls for “peaceful and inclusive societies for
sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build
effective, accountable and inclusive institution at all levels,” implies
that an individual’s rights guaranteed under Article 2 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights must be incorporated into the SDGs
regardless of the language spoken by an individual. Yet the SDGs do not
address language services such as translators and interpreters necessary
to ensure that already disenfranchised speakers of minority or foreign
languages are not burdened with ensuring adequate and fair
representation under the law.</p><p><a href="http://www.diplomaticourier.com/language-rights-need-center-global-policy/">http://www.diplomaticourier.com/language-rights-need-center-global-policy/</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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