Opinion | Lets Celebrate International Mother Language Day-2024 With Proud.

Theme “Multilingual Education-A Necessity to Transform Education”.
The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization announced in November 1999 to celebrate the International Mother Language Day (International Mother Language Day 2024). However, it was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in 2002. The purpose of celebrating this day is to ensure the preservation and promotion of all languages ​​used by the people of the world. In the era of globalization and digitalization, many local languages ​​are on the verge of extinction. The United Nations recognized this issue and started this day to encourage people to respect and recognize the importance of their mother tongue. Every language is a heritage that needs to be preserved to ensure cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.The proposed day also has a historical significance. It commemorates the tragic killings in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1952, when citizens were treated unequally on linguistic grounds. In November 1999, UNESCO declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day all over the world in memory of those who sacrificed their lives in Bangladesh for the protection of mother tongues. Every year February 21 is celebrated as International Mother Language Day across the world. Multilingual and multicultural societies exist through their languages, which sustainably transmit and preserve traditional knowledge and cultures. A day, week, or year observed at the international level primarily to raise public awareness of issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address emerging global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce the achievements of humanity. International days have existed since before the founding of the United Nations, but the United Nations has embraced them as a powerful advocacy tool.
Language and culture play an important role in the social development of any society. Language is an important medium of communication and expression and reflects and expresses facts and observations, but also influences human behavior. As such, it is an important component of the basic conditions of social development, because language expresses culture, reinforces it, affects the personal identity of the people living within the culture, and creates behavioural boundaries, language is important for preserving the cultural values ​​of nations. This is the reason why countries and nations on the path of social development maintain the continuity of promotion and development of national and regional languages ​​and cultures of their homeland, and political and social forces in power and outside power give equal importance to it. .
In the world as a whole, local languages ​​have the status of mother tongues of their respective regions. So the mother tongue is the language that the child hears after birth, and helps give a certain shape to our feelings and thoughts. It is the language of any person’s ancestors and his land. Making mother tongue a medium of instruction is also important because it plays a vital role in acquiring critical thinking skills, learning other languages, increasing literacy rate and improving its quality.NEP-2020 also encourages foundational Education in Mother Tongue.
Educational experts around the world agree that primary education of children in their mother tongue produces the best results. It builds the mental development of children on a strong foundation and they can acquire knowledge in a better way. On the contrary, the national language plays the role of communication between the units of a country and improves the communication among its people. That is why the most spoken language among the local languages ​​spoken in any country is given the status of national language. While all the languages ​​of the country are provided with equal opportunities to develop and make it a medium of basic education. Many countries have more than one national language, for example Switzerland has three national languages ​​and Russia four. Therefore, connecting with one’s land, one’s language and one’s culture increases love, unity and national solidarity, not diminishes it.
According to an estimate, 40 percent of the world’s population currently does not have access to education in the language they speak or understand. About 7,000 languages ​​are spoken worldwide today, but linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages ​​are endangered. When a language becomes extinct, it takes with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage. Local languages ​​are of strategic importance to the people and societies in any society with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development.

Yet they are increasingly endangered, or disappearing altogether, due to the process of globalization. When languages ​​disappear, so does the world’s rich cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions, memory, unique ways of thinking and expressing, and precious resources to ensure a better future are also lost.
Research from around the world shows that teaching in the mother tongue is considered to be the most inclusive in the educational process and the best quality of learning, and the mother tongue improves the quality of learning in children and their academic performance. . Doing so is particularly important in primary schools to avoid knowledge gaps, and to accelerate learning and understanding. By making the mother tongue the medium of early education, children learn better and faster, and understand better.They enjoy school more, identify their school as home and their Self-Esteem increases. Education in the mother tongue, when combined with national and international languages, helps in cognitive and intellectual development. It helps in learning other languages, helps You connect culture and people, and is also beneficial professionally and commercially.It us the responsibility of All of Us to Promote Mother Tongue at All Levels.
(Writer is a Columnist and a Teacher By Profession and Can be Contacted on mukhtar.qur@gmail.com )