West: activities begin ahead of mother tongue day

Week-long activities to mark the 2023 International Mother Language day were launched in the West Region on Tuesday February 14 by the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Basic Education, Asheri Kilo in a ceremony that was held at Government Nursery and Primary School Kamkop.

During the launch, Asheri Kilo said the mother tongue should be used as a tool of unity and not of division.

“We should use the mother tongue to unite each other rather than separate. One of the ways by which we should maintain indivisibility is by accepting other languages,” she said.

With about 250 local languages, the government of Cameroon has been working on promoting and preserving the mother tongue as cultural pillars. This is the reason why the government of Cameroon has been implementing the teaching of mother tongues in schools nationwide. An operation that has already led to the training of over a hundred thousand children in the mother tongue as revealed by the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Basic Education.

“There are five languages that are being taught in our schools. We have some experimental schools where these languages are being taught. We have trained over a hundred thousand children in the mother tongue,” said Asheri Kilo.

Pupils across the Mifi Division and its surroundings drilled the population during the ceremony with poems, sketches, debates, songs and cultural dances in the mother tongue.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Mother Tongue can be defined as “the first language that you learn when you are a baby, rather than a language learned at school or as an adult”.

International Mother Language Day has been annually observed throughout the world since 2000. It was first announced by UNESCO on November 17, 1999. Later in 2002, the United Nations General Assembly formally recognized it with the adoption of the U.N. resolution 56/262.

Week-long commemorative activities launched on February 14, will run till February 21st.