Kit Purpose To raise awareness about multilingual education by providing insights into the value of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education which respects the rights of children and adult learners To help the reader understand how the major obstacles and objections to mother tongue-based MLE can be overcome To encourage readers to think about the importance of mother tongue-based multilingual education issues and to investigate them further

What is Mother Tongue-Based MLE? Education that promotes mother tongue instruction as a means of improving educational quality by building upon the knowledge and experience of learners and teachers Education that allows linguistic minority groups into mainstream life without forcing them to leave behind their ethnic and linguistic identity Education that enables linguistic minority learners to gain fluency and confidence in speaking, reading and writing the national language and to participate fully in, and contribute, to national economic and social development

Why is this Kit Needed?

Number of Languages spoken in Asia Change ‘over” to “of” World’s more than 6000 languages, 50% are “dying”, 40% are endangered, and only 10% are “safe”. 96% of these languages are spoken by only 4% of the world’s population. Most of the endangered languages are spoken by ethnic minorities. If nothing is done, these languages and their cultures will likely die.

If nothing is done: With the death of a language, an irreplaceable unit of our knowledge and understanding of human thought and world-view is lost.

The Situation in Education There are 77 million out-of-school children and 781 million illiterates. Many of them remain excluded from education by language. Most countries in the region are multilingual, but the true panorama of languages found in the region is rarely reflected in education systems. As a result, large numbers of learners are confronted with either a foreign medium of instruction or a language that is different from the language they speak at home. There remains a lack of understanding and recognition of the role that mother tongue-based MLE can play in improving access to, retention in, and the quality of, education .

Number of Languages spoken in Asia Country Languages Indonesia 742 India 427 China 241 Philippines 180 Malaysia 147 Nepal 125 Myanmar 113 Vietnam 104 Lao PDR 86 Thailand 83 Pakistan 77 Iran 75 Afghanistan 51 Bangladesh 46 Kazakhstan 43 Country Languages Uzbekistan 40 Tajikistan 33 Kyrgyzstan 32 Bhutan 31 Singapore 30 Turkmenistan 27 Cambodia 24 Timor Leste 19 Brunei 19 Japan 16 Mongolia 15 Sri Lanka 7 Korea, South 2 Maldives 2 Korea, North 1 TOTAL: ~ 2200 (Source: Ethnologue 2005) (30 countries)

National or Official Languages in Asia Assamese, Bengali 2, Dzongkha, Eastern Farsi (Dari), Eastern Punjabi, English 4 (1), Filipino, Gujarati, Gurung, Halh Mongolian, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Kannada, Kashmiri, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Khmer, Konkani, Korean 2, Lao, Malay 3, Malayalam, Maldivian (Diwehi) Mandarin Chinese 2, Marathi, Meitei, Myanma, Nepali 2, Northern Uzbek, Oriya, Portuguese, Russian 2 Sanskrit, Sindhi 2, Sinhala, Southern Pashto, Tajiki, Tamil 2, Telugu, Tetun, Thai, Turkmen, Urdu 2, Vietnamese, Western Farsi (46 languages)

Learners whose mother tongue is the language of instruction and literacy in education. Minority language learners who do not speak the language used when they enter school or an education programme

MLE for building a strong foundation and a good bridge in multilingual contexts

Who are the Kit’s Users? Policy makers, education practitioners, teachers, community members Those working in literacy and multilingual education programmes

How can the Kit be Used? Containing three main booklets, the Kit can be used as a self-study advocacy guide. Each booklet can be used individually or together in a building-block fashion. It is useful for both formal and non-formal education programmes. Each booklet contains glossaries of terms.

What does it do? Provides information on the situation of languages in education in Asia-Pacific countries Examines educational situations for linguistic minorities Explores how mother tongue-based MLE improves the educational situation for them Explains the relationship between MLE and development in general Presents features of a strong mother tongue-based MLE programme, including its cost-effectiveness, case studies and good practices

Presents UNESCO’s principles on language and education: Helps policy makers to understand the educational situation for learners who do not speak the official language Presents UNESCO’s principles on language and education: Supporting mother tongue instruction as a means of improving quality education Promoting multilingual education as a means of promoting social and gender equality Supporting language as an essential component of inter-cultural education in order to encourage international understanding Provides further information about MLE and the role of policy makers

Presents the educational situation for people who do not speak official school languages Provides a definition and the purpose of Mother Tongue-based MLE Describes the process of building a strong educational foundation in a learners’ mother tongue and a good “bridge to the official language” Shows how to plan and implement MLE programmes Presents case studies from many countries in the region

Helps community members to achieve national/international educational goals without forcing them to sacrifice their mother tongue and culture in the process Describes learner-centered and community-centered education programmes in which children begin their education in their mother tongue Provides further information about MLE and the role of community members in the process

To obtain the Kit contact: Ochirkhuyag Gankhuyag APPEAL Unit UNESCO Bangkok o.gankhuyag@unescobkk.org