The Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) celebrated, Tuesday in Rabat, the International Day of the Mother Language, which coincides with February 21 of each year, under the theme “The contribution of Amazigh to the multicultural education”.
This annual celebration is part of the activities organized by the Institute to highlight the importance of the preservation and promotion of mother tongues and in particular the Amazigh language.
Speaking on this occasion, the rector of IRCAM, Ahmed Boukouss emphasized the importance of this celebration to promote cultural and linguistic diversity, noting that the provisions of the 2011 Constitution have contributed to the development of Amazigh language and culture.
Thanks to this constitutional development, the Amazigh language is now taught at all levels from primary to higher education, he noted.
For his part, the representative, director of the UNESCO office for the Maghreb, Eric Falt, indicated that the mother tongue is of great importance, arguing that each child must have the opportunity to learn both the official language of his country than their mother tongue.
“Aware of the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity in building sustainable societies, UNESCO seeks to sensitize governments to the importance of mother tongues and their preservation,” he said. International Mother Language Day is an opportunity to recognize the positive impact of languages and multilingualism on inclusion and the focus of the Sustainable Development Goals on leaving no one behind.
UNESCO encourages and promotes multilingual education based on the mother tongue or first language. It is a type of education that begins in the language that the learner masters best, then gradually introduces other languages.