adminPeter Tanyanyiwa Cool Lifestyle Reporter
Zimbabwe schools across the country celebrated International Mother Language Day last week. This year’s main celebrations were held at United Nations Information Centre (UNIC). The celebrations were really geared for modern youths as there was a live video link between students in Harare, Lagos and the New York UN headquarters.
The platform was for students in Harare and Lagos to interact and tell each other how to preserve their mother languages in the different environments.
There were five schools represented on the Zimbabwean panel in Harare including the Pinewood, Glen Norah 2 High, Mabvuku High and Highfield High to mention just a few.
International Mother Language Day is a special day when the UNESCO and UN agencies participate in events that promote linguistic and cultural diversity and also encourage students to maintain knowledge of their mother language.
They also emphasise the importance to learn and use more than one language in the world whose cultural boundaries are constantly shifting.
Some of the views that were shared by Zimbabwean students and their Nigerian counterparts is the need to develop software in the mother languages.
“In this day and age, it’s not only about educated people but it’s about skill, so one maybe skilled but not educated, hence we need that person in the system. Mother tongue is very important for technological advancement.
Nevertheless, students should learn to be multilingual. It helps when one moves from one location to another,” Zanele Muhlwa (15) student at Pinewood said.
“The discussion forum had live video link with the students from Nigeria. It helped me to understand how important my mother language is. Even at school you find that some of the students cannot grasp concepts that will be shared by the teacher until it’s clarified in the mother tongue,” said Munashe Mutema (16), a student at High field High 2.
International Mother Language Day was celebrated under the theme “Local Languages for Global Citizenship: Spotlight on Science” But things did not end with the commemorations.
In various institutions across many countries, experts will continue to discuss the role of local languages in advancing science and try to find the best way to ensure that the latest scientific knowledge is more widely shared.
They will try to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education and at the same time develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world.
“As we work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals while mapping out a post-2015 sustainable development agenda, this diversity can encourage dialogue, mutual understanding, innovation and creativity.
This in turn can help us build more just and inclusive societies.
UNESCO advocates for mother tongue instruction in a bilingual or multilingual education approach in the early years because of its importance in creating a strong foundation for learning.
The organisation also advise parents to use mother tongue with young children at home in order to prepare them for the smooth acquisition of literacy in their mother tongue and the acquisition of the second language at a later stage in their schooling.
Online Reporter