The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, celebrated International Mother Language Day on Tuesday under the theme, 'Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education'.

According to a report by the UNESCO Asia Pacific Multilingual Education Group, 40 percent of the world's population, 2.3 billion people, lack access to education in their own languages. This year's theme focuses on fostering sustainable development that enables students and learners to access education both in their mother tongue and in other languages.

Irina Bokova, the UNESCO Director-General said, "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 in the media, cyberspace and trade.

"International Mother Language Day, devoted this year to multilingual education, is also an opportunity to mobilise for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular SDG 4, to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. Education and information in the mother language is absolutely essential to improving learning and developing confidence and self-esteem, which are among the most powerful engines of development," she added.

The UAE's education authorities are aware that the development of states depends on the strong foundations of an educational system, and are making a concerted effort to find ways to raise the overall standards of education and school curricula nationwide that enable students to expand their horizons whilst maintaining a thorough understanding of the history and culture of the country in a multilingual setting.

The latest example of these is the launch of the third phase of 'Lughati', the Sharjah-based initiative dedicated to supporting Arabic learning via smart-learning methodologies, on Tuesday. Through Lughati, Arabic for 'My Language', 25,000 students and 1,000 teachers in Sharjah’s government schools are being given tablet computers equipped with specially designed Arabic language educational programmes and applications.