Context: Languages play a key role in ensuring cultural and civilisational continuity, but globalisation and westernisation have impacted the growth and survival of many of the dialects. 

International Mother Language Day

• According to a UN agency, nearly 43% of about 6,000 languages spoken in the world are endangered.
• In November 1999, the UNESCO General Conference approved the declaration of February 21 as International Mother Language Day, in response to the declining state of many languages.

International Mother Language Day, 2022

• Theme: Using Technology for Multilingual Learning: Challenges and Opportunities.
• Objective: To discuss the role of technology to further the cause of multilingual education and use technology to support and enrich the teaching-learning experience on a multilingual level.
• Aim: To achieve a qualitative, equitable and inclusive educational experience.

The Director-General of UNESCO said that the technology can provide new tools for protecting linguistic diversity. Such tools will help us to record and preserve languages that sometimes exist only in oral form.
Linguistic diversity in India

• India has been home to hundreds of languages and thousands of dialects, making its linguistic and cultural diversity the most unique in the world.
• India’s linguistic diversity is one of the cornerstones of an ancient civilisation.

According to the Language Census findings in 2018,

• India is home to 19,500 languages or dialects, of which 121 languages are spoken by 10,000 or more people in the country.
• 196 Indian languages fall under the “endangered” category.

The need for Technology in Multilingual Learning

• The role of technology came to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic when school shutdowns forced educators and learners to adapt themselves to online education.
• Online education poses the challenges of required skills in distance teaching, Internet access, and adapting materials and content in diverse languages.
• The central and State governments are formulating measures to promote digital learning and ensuring that there is no digital divide is its responsibility.

Key initiatives undertaken to promote Multilingual Learning

• The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 encourages the use of mother tongue as the medium of instruction till Class five but preferably till Class eight and beyond.
• The use of mother tongue is bound to create a positive impact on learning.
• There is a need to improve scientific and technical terminology in Indian languages that would help transform the educational experience.
• In a survey of over 83,000 students conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in 2020, about 44% of students voted in favour of studying engineering in their mother tongue
• In this regard, the AICTE collaborated with IIT Madras to translate some courses from the Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) platform into eight regional languages such as Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam and Gujarati.
• A decision has been taken by the AICTE to permit Tech programmes in 11 native languages, in line with the NEP 2020.

Road Ahead

• Sir C.V. Raman observed that “we must teach science in our mother tongue. Otherwise, science will become a highbrow activity. It will not be an activity in which all people can participate”.
• By looking at his observation and the performance of countries like Japan, China, Korea and European countries, the policymakers, educators, and parents must realise that we have created a large English-based education system including courses such as medicine and engineering that hinders a vast number of learners in the country from accessing higher education.
• As the theme of International Mother Language Day 2022, has much relevance in reshaping Indian higher education. Hence, this day has special significance to the Indian context that is in line with the government’s vision of “sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas”.