ABTTF President: “In our country Greece, our demand for kindergarten has been ignored for years, and children of our community are prevented from learning their native language Turkish, in pre-school education’’.
The General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared 21 February as International Mother Language Day in 1999. International Mother Language Day has been celebrated every year on 21 February since 2000 with various events to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism around the world. This year’s theme for International Mother Language Day is ‘‘Multilingual education – a pillar of learning and intergenerational learning’’.
Underlining that multilingual and multicultural societies thrive through the preservation of their languages, which serve as conduits for traditional knowledge and cultural heritage in a sustainable manner, UNESCO pointed out that linguistic diversity is increasingly under threat as more and more languages are vanishing.
Pointing out that today, 250 million children and young people in the world still do not go to school and 763 million adults do not have basic literacy skills, UNESCO underlines that education in the mother language supports learning, literacy, and additional language acquisition. Emphasising the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies, UNESCO notes that linguistic diversity is increasingly under threat as more and more languages are disappearing.
‘‘UNESCO highlights the importance of implementing multilingual education policies and practices, especially in pre-school education, and calls for inclusive and quality education and lifelong learning for all. Receiving education in one’s mother language is one of the most fundamental human rights. As underlined by UNESCO, it is of critical importance for children to learn their mother language, especially in pre-school education, in terms of their success in subsequent school education and in preserving their identity and culture and transferring them to future generations. However, in our country Greece, our demand for kindergarten has been ignored for years, and children of our community are prevented from learning their native language Turkish, in pre-school education. While there are 141 state kindergartens in the prefecture of Rodopi, where we constitute the majority of the population, and in the prefecture of Xanthi, where we constitute approximately 45% of the population, there is not even a single Turkish minority kindergarten. Our children, who are forced to attend these public schools where the language of education is only Greek, are deprived of learning their mother language Turkish. Again, in violation of our educational autonomy, our bilingual autonomous primary schools are being closed. While there were 226 primary schools in our region in 2003, today we have only 90 primary schools as a result of these closures. We reiterate our demand for bilingual minority kindergartens and celebrate 21 February, International Mother Language Day, for our community and everyone”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF)
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