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New UNESCO report calls for multilingual education to unlock learning and inclusion
A new UNESCO report, , released on International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2025, highlights the urgent need to include multilingualism in education systems so that children learn in a language they understand.
Today, 40 % of people globally lack access to education in the language they speak and understand fluently. In some low- and middle-income countries, this figure rises to 90%. More than a quarter of a billion learners are affected.
As migration increases, linguistic diversity is becoming a global reality, and classrooms with learners from diverse language backgrounds are more common. Over 31 million displaced youth are facing language barriers in education.
The report provides guidance to Ministries of Education and key educational stakeholders on how to implement multilingual education policies and practices, with the goal of creating educational systems that benefit all learners.
It will be presented during a global event Languages matter: Silver Jubilee Celebration of International Mother Language Day, organized at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 20 and 21 February 2025.
Proven benefits of multilingual education
According to , there are 7,000 languages, spoken or signed, in use in the world today – and only 351 languages are used as the medium of instruction. One language disappears every two weeks.
91鶹Ʒ long championed the cause of mother tongue-based multilingual education, emphasizing that learning that begins in one's home language enhances learning outcomes and preserves cultural heritage
A from UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report shows that multilingual education based on home language is essential for learning, as it lays the foundation for basic literacy, supports the learning of additional languages, and improves learning outcomes across a range of subjects including math and science.
Instruction through home languages for up to six or eight years, alongside the introduction of a second one, initially as a subject, and later as a parallel medium of instruction, accelerates learning and helps prevent knowledge gaps.
Shift in Africa to bilingual or multilingual education
In Africa, children who learned in a familiar language were to read with understanding by the end of primary school compared to those taught in an unfamiliar language.
In Mozambique, for example, a shift to bilingual education in primary education increased learning rates by 15 per cent.
“When the children enter school and the teacher and their friends speak the local language, students are not afraid to express themselves,” says Abel Marthinho Jâoa, teacher at the Lumbo Primary School in Mozambique. “I’ve seen children who had serious reading problems, but now we find students in the first grade who know how to read, count and write thanks to the bilingual education system.”
A mapping of Africa’s language of instruction policies in the found that over half of countries (31 out of 55) in the continent have adopted bilingual or multilingual education policies, of which 23 shift to the second language before grade 5. Some 80% of all countries with bilingual or multilingual education policies indicate that the local languages used as the medium of instruction in early grades should later be kept as subjects.
Languages also play a vital role in shaping our cultural identity, and multilingual education is important as it preserves linguistic diversity and knowledge systems. This is particularly true for Indigenous languages and cultures, which are often spoken in biodiversity-rich regions, preserving traditional knowledge, values, and wisdom that are vital for environmental protection, and advancing green economies.
Recommended practical action
The new UNESCO guidance includes recommendations for practical actions to implement mother tongue-based multilingual education:
- Collect sociolinguistic and educational data to inform policy design and resource allocation.
- Formalize political commitments to multilingual education through supportive policies and legislation.
- Integrate multilingual education into curricula from early grades, prioritizing mother-tongue instruction.
- Develop learning materials in learners’ languages and align assessment strategies with multilingual education principles.
- Recruit teachers fluent in both the mother tongue and official language of instruction and provide training to deliver engaging multilingual education adapted to specific contexts.
- Ensure the meaningful engagement of parents, caregivers, and local communities, including Indigenous Peoples, to design and deliver multilingual education programmes that build on the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to succeed in today’s multilingual and interconnected world.
25 years of celebration
The International Mother Language Day has been celebrated for 25 years. The idea to celebrate was the and the Day was approved at the
