News

On 21 February UNESCO Tehran joined the Embassy of Bangladesh in Tehran to mark the International Mother Language Day through a virtual recitation and discussion meeting.

This year the Day celebrated at a time when the world is going through an unprecedented crisis.

The online meeting was opened by his Excellency Mr Gousal Azam Sarker, the ambassador of Bangladesh in Iran. He welcomed and thanked the audience for attending the online celebration. Stating the background of the Day, he recalled the martyrs who lost their lives on this Day.

Mr Cvetan Cvetkovski, the Officer-in-Charge of UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office commenced his opening remarks by quoting the message of UNESCO’s Director General for this day: “The theme of the Day this year, "Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society", thus encourages us to support multilingualism and the use of mother tongues, both at school and in everyday life. This is essential, because when 40% of the world's inhabitants do not have access to education in the language they speak or understand best, it hinders their learning, as well as their access to heritage and cultural expressions. This year, special attention is being paid to multilingual education from early childhood, so that for children, their mother tongue is always an asset.” He continued further by mentioning UNESCO activities to promote linguistic diversity including on the Internet, in the context of “International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032)” etc.

At the second part of the programme, poets from Bangladesh and Iran recited poems in their mother tongue and participated in the discussion meeting.

URL:

https://en.unesco.org/news/languages-connect-world