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How UNESCO literacy prizes laureates are keeping mother languages alive
40 per cent of the population around the world does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand. Linguistic diversity is gradually being threatened as more and more languages disappear. Despite circumstances, UNESCO works to promote multilingual education and believes in the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for building sustainable societies.
In the spirit of International Mother Language Day on 21 February, former laureates of share how they are continuously working to promote multilingualism through literacy learning and the role it plays in transforming education. On International Mother Language Day, UNESCO is calling on countries to implement mother language-based multilingual education.
Building peace, tolerance, and respect through multilingual literacy learning
Limitless Horizons Ixil (LHI), from Guatemala was one of the laureates of the 2021 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for their programme, Broadcasting Bilingual Stories: Promoting Interactive Literacy Programming. Since receiving the Prize, LHI continued their bilingual radio story broadcasts in Spanish and Ixil, the language of the Maya Ixil people, and their bilingual literacy programming at the community library. Colegio Horizontes, a unique school focused on indigenous girls in the Chajul region, was launched and requires all learners to take an Ixil course in which they learn to write, read, and speak Ixil. “Multilingual education can transform education by preserving ancient cultures while offering youth an opportunity to expand their horizons”, shared Ms Katie Morrow, Executive Director & Founder of Limitless Horizons Ixil.
The 2019 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize laureate from Algeria, was awarded for their programme, Multilingual National Strategy for Literacy. The Algerian National Office of Literacy and Education for Adults (ONAEA) adopted Tamazight as a mother tongue in addition to Arabic as part of the multilingual literacy and adult education strategy. Mr Kamel Kherbouche, Director at the ONAEA, enhanced the importance of multilingual education not only for inclusiveness but as an opportunity to strengthen and mobilize actors across all contexts – including multilingual ones to build a more sustainable future. “Each time a language is taught, it is a culture that is saved from extinction”, added Mr Kherbouche.
BASAbali, from Indonesia was awarded the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2020 for its programme, BASAbali Wiki, which promotes linguistic diversity. Indonesia is home to over a thousand ethnic groups and 700 local languages. Ms Ni Nyoman Clara Listya Dewi, Engagement Director at BASAbali stated, “multilingual education not only increases tolerance and understanding, but allows citizens to interact at a local, national and global level. Multilingualism requires a change of mindset that embraces languages rather than choosing between them”.
Associação Progresso, from Mozambique won the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize in 2015 under the programme, Literacy in Local Language, a Springboard for Gender Equality and has been working to expand bilingual education to support learners’ transition to acquire the Portuguese language through the SABER project.
Ms Tinie van Eys, former Senior Program Officer at Associação Progresso, highlighted the importance of teachers in the transformation of multilingual education. She affirmed, “all children and adults like to learn in the language they understand and have an intrinsic motivation to learn in their mother tongue. Teachers play a crucial role to further develop this motivation and improve their learning results”.
Languages give individuals the opportunity to transmit world views and societies to preserve local and traditional knowledge and cultures. In a context where we want to make sense of the world around us, it is indispensable to understand each other embracing all languages.
The two UNESCO International Literacy Prizes are: The UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, established in 1989, with the support of the Government of the Republic of Korea, which gives special consideration to mother language-based literacy development and the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, established in 2005 with the support of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, which gives special consideration to functional literacy, leveraging technological environments, in support of adults in rural areas and out-of-school youth.
