EFA News
China hosts seminar to celebrate multilingual education and cultural diversity
23.03.2009The UNESCO Beijing Office, together with the China Education Association for International Exchange and the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO organized a one-day seminar to celebrate the 2009 International Mother Language Day on 6 March 2009 in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province in south China. The theme of this year’s seminar was “Protecting Mother Language, Developing Cultural Heritage”.
Opened by the Vice Governor of Jiangxi Province, the seminar's aim was to raise awareness on linguistic and cultural diversity, advocate the importance of multilingual education, and carry on the joint efforts since 2006.
Mr. Min Bista, Education Programme Specialist of the UNESCO Office Beijing introduced UNESCO’s strategies and programmes on education in the multilingual world. SIL experts shared their experience in language development and multilingual education in Asia. Senior officials from the Ministry of Education Departments of Language Information and Ethnic Education also introduced China’s language policies and reassured the Government’s commitment to improve multilingual education.
The seminar brought together over 100 participants representing the Ministry of Education, foreign embassies, international organizations, universities, research institutes and NGOs to share their experiences and lessons learnt in multilingual education and have in-depth discussion over many issues of common concern, such as protection and development of ethnic languages, support to multilingual teachers, protecting tangible and intangible heritages, etc.
Contact Person: Ms. He Pei, UNESCO Beijing Office, p.he@unesco.org
Related links:
International Mother Language Day, 21 February 2009 - UNESCO HQ