The International Mother Language Day was approved at the UNESCO General Conference in November 1999. Since February 2000 it has been celebrated every year to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
Every year the topic to which this international day will be dedicated is chosen. In 2023 it is "Multilingual education: A necessity to transform education".
With this event UNESCO emphasizes that the organization promotes and develops multilingual education based on the mother tongue or first language. Multilingual education refers to a type of education that begins with the language that the student speaks to the greatest extent. Other languages are added gradually during the learning process. This approach allows students whose native language differs from the language of instruction to get acquainted with the school environment in a familiar language, to bridge the gap between home and school and, as a result, to study better.
Our library also contributes to the maintenance of linguistic diversity. It presents sources in the state (official) languages of the CIS countries as well as in English.
In the CIS space this year has been declared the Year of the Russian Language as the Language of Interethnic Communication. This event contributes to the popularization of the Russian language abroad, training and advanced training of teaching staff in the field of the Russian language as well as the strengthening of multilingual education. The Action Plan includes more than 150 events: the consortium "Russian Language in the CIS", online Russian language school for youth of the CIS countries, the III International Congress "Language Policy of the Commonwealth of Independent States" and others.
The Action Plan can be found here.