UNESCO celebrates International Mother Language Day (IMLD) on February
21, 2017 under the theme “Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual
Education”. To foster sustainable development, learners must have access to
education in their mother tongue and in other languages. It is through the
mastery of the first language or mother tongue that the basic skills of
reading, writing and numeracy are acquired. Local languages, especially
minority and indigenous, transmit cultures, values and traditional knowledge,
thus playing an important role in promoting sustainable futures.
