When the spirit of Ekushey goes global

The General Conference of the United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared 21st February as International Mother Language Day (IMLD) in November 1999. IMLD has been being observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. This is in recognition of the sacrifices of our Language Movement martyrs. In 1952, when students were demonstrating for recognition of Bangla as one of the state languages of the then Pakistan, they were shot and killed by the police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.
Encouraged and influenced by the proceedings of IMLD, the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution A/RES/61/266 of May 16, 2007 called upon member states "to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world". In the same resolution, the General Assembly proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of Languages, to promote unity in diversity and international understanding, through multilingualism and multiculturalism.
Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing the tangible and intangible heritage. Moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue. On the IMLD, the  UNESCO and other UN agencies participate in events that promote linguistic and cultural diversity. They also encourage people to maintain the knowledge of their mother language while learning and using more than one language for their livelihood. Governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) may use the day to announce policies to encourage language learning and support.
Each year, celebrations around International Mother Language Day concentrate on a particular theme. The theme of 2017 IMLD is: '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.'
In a befitting message on the IMLD 2017,  the UNESCO Director-General    Irina Bokova, says, "On the occasion of this Day, I launch an appeal for the potential of multilingual education to be acknowledged everywhere, in education and administrative systems, in cultural expressions and the media, cyberspace and trade".
In Bangladesh, IMLD -- February 21-- is the anniversary of a heroic day in the country's history. People lay flowers at the Shaheed Minar (martyr's monument). It is a time to celebrate Bangladesh's culture and the Bengali language. IMLD, also known as Shahid Dibôsh, or Shaheed Day, is a public holiday.
The chronicle of the Shahid Dibôsh in Bangladesh shows that at the partition of India in 1947, the vibrant and economically sound Bengal province was divided according to the predominant religions of the inhabitants. The western part became part of India and the eastern part became a province of Pakistan known as East Bengal and later East Pakistan. However, there was economic, cultural and lingual friction between East and West Pakistan. These tensions were apparent in 1948 when Pakistan's central government declared that Urdu would be the only national language of the state. This sparked protests amongst the Bengali-speaking majority in East Pakistan. The government outlawed the protests but on February 21, 1952, students of the University of Dhaka and other activists organised a protest. Later that day, the police opened fire at the demonstrators and killed four. Their  deaths in fighting for the right to use their mother language are now remembered globally on IMLD. The unrest continued as the Bengali-speaking people campaigned for the right to use their mother language. Bengali became an official language in Pakistan on February 29, 1956. Following the bloody liberation war in 1971, Bangladesh became an independent country with Bengali as its official language.
The Shaheed Minar (martyr's monument) in Bangladesh pays homage to the four demonstrators killed in 1952. There have been three versions of the monument. The first version was built on February 22-23 in 1952 but the police and army destroyed it within a few days. Construction on the second version started in November 1957, but it was destroyed during the Liberation War in 1971. The third version of the Shaheed Minar was built as per the design of the second version. It consists of four standing frames and a larger double frame with a slanted top. The frames are constructed from marble and stand on a stage, which is about four meters above the ground. The four frames represent the four men who died on February 21, 1952, and the double frame represents their mothers and the country. Replicas of the Shaheed Minar were constructed on foreign lands as well, where people from Bangladesh have settled, particularly in London and Oldham in the United Kingdom, in Tokyo, Japan. An International Mother Language Day monument was erected at Ashfield Park in Sydney, Australia, on February 19, 2006.  It consists of a slab of slate mounted vertically on a raised platform. There are stylised images of the Shaheed Minar and the globe on the face of the stone. There are also the words "we will remember the martyrs of 21st February" in English and Bengali and words in five alphabets to represent mother languages in five continents.
The 2017 theme of the IMLD is 'Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education'. It has a bearing on Sustainable Development Goal Number 4, which is to 'Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning'. There is none to deny the fact that obtaining a quality education is the foundation to improve people's lives and work on sustainable development.
 Major progress has been made all over the globe towards increasing access to education at all levels and increasing enrolment rates in schools particularly for women and girls. Basic literacy skills have improved tremendously, yet bolder efforts are needed to make even greater strides for achieving universal education goals. The crude fact remains that enrolment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 per cent but 57 million children remain out of school; more than half of the children that have not enrolled in school live in sub-Saharan Africa; an estimated 50 per cent of out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas; 103 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 per cent of them are women.
Now let us look at the connotation of multilingual education. Multilingual education facilitates access to education while promoting equity for populations. It emphasises the quality of teaching and learning with a focus on understanding and creativity; it reinforces the cognitive aspect of learning by ensuring the direct application of learning outcomes to the learner's life through the mother tongue; it enhances dialogue and interaction between the learner and the teacher by allowing genuine communication. Multilingual education facilitates participation and provides access to new knowledge and cultural expressions, thus ensuring a harmonious interaction between the global and the local.
There should be an 'inclusion' approach in Education. If the right to education for all is to become a reality, it has to ensure that all learners have access to quality education that meets basic learning needs and enriches lives. Still, today, millions of children, youth and adults continue to experience exclusion within and from education around the world. The UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960) and other international human rights treaties prohibit any exclusion from or limitation to educational opportunities on the basis of socially ascribed or perceived differences, such as sex, ethnic origin, language, religion, nationality, social origin, economic condition, ability etc.
Education is not simply about making schools available for those who are already able to access them. It is about being proactive in identifying the barriers and obstacles learners encounter in attempting to access opportunities for quality education, as well as in removing those barriers and obstacles that lead to exclusion.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid is a former Secretary and former Chairman, NBR.
 mazid.muhammad@gmail.com