UN Calls to Include Indigenous Languages in Education System PARIS, France -- The United Nations called on Tuesday to grant importance to the indigenous languages within the education system, and warned about the fast disappearance of several languages in the world.
 Both warnings were made to the General Director of the UN
Organization for Educational, Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO), Irina
Bokova, on the occasion of International Mother Tongue Day on Tuesday.
She
noted that the indigenous languages entail knowledge on biodiversity
and ecosystem management that constitute a significant potential for
sustainable development that deserve to be shared.
In a message
released at the UN headquarters in New York, Bokova noted that mother
tongues of excluded populations, such as indigenous peoples, are often
ignored by education systems.
In that regard, the UN official
urged to allow the members of these groups to acquire knowledge in their
native tongues at early ages and then in national or official languages
as a way to promote equality and social inclusion.
According to
the UNESCO director, nearly half of the 6,000 languages spoken in the
world today may dissappear at the end of the century.
The loss of
a language is an impoverishment of humanity, a backward movement in the
defense of everyone's right to be heard, learn and communicate, she
remarked.
Updated 23.02.2012
Published by: Magne Ove Varsi
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