2. Kit Purpose
To raise awareness about multilingual education by providing insights into the value of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education which respects the rights of children and adult learners
To help the reader understand how the major obstacles and objections to mother tongue-based MLE can be overcome
To encourage readers to think about the importance of mother tongue-based multilingual education issues and to investigate them further

3. What is Mother Tongue-Based MLE?
Education that promotes mother tongue instruction as a means of improving educational quality by building upon the knowledge and experience of learners and teachers
Education that allows linguistic minority groups into mainstream life without forcing them to leave behind their ethnic and linguistic identity
Education that enables linguistic minority learners to gain fluency and confidence in speaking, reading and writing the national language and to participate fully in, and contribute, to national economic and social development

4. Why is this Kit Needed?

5. Number of Languages spoken in Asia
Change ‘over” to “of”
World’s more than 6000 languages, 50% are “dying”, 40% are endangered, and only 10% are “safe”.
96% of these languages are spoken by only 4% of the world’s population.
Most of the endangered languages are spoken by ethnic minorities.
If nothing is done, these languages and their cultures will likely die.

6. If nothing is done:
With the death of a language, an irreplaceable unit of our knowledge and understanding of human thought and world-view is lost.

7. The Situation in Education
There are 77 million out-of-school children and 781 million illiterates.
Many of them remain excluded from education by language.
Most countries in the region are multilingual, but the true panorama of languages found in the region is rarely reflected in education systems.
As a result, large numbers of learners are confronted with either a foreign medium of instruction or a language that is different from the language they speak at home.
There remains a lack of understanding and recognition of the role that mother tongue-based MLE can play in improving access to, retention in, and the quality of, education .

8. Number of Languages spoken in Asia
Country Languages
Indonesia 742
India 427
China 241
Philippines 180
Malaysia 147
Nepal 125
Myanmar 113
Vietnam 104
Lao PDR 86
Thailand 83
Pakistan 77
Iran 75
Afghanistan 51
Bangladesh 46
Kazakhstan 43
Country Languages
Uzbekistan 40
Tajikistan 33
Kyrgyzstan 32
Bhutan 31
Singapore 30
Turkmenistan 27
Cambodia 24
Timor Leste 19
Brunei 19
Japan 16
Mongolia 15
Sri Lanka
Korea, South 2
Maldives 2
Korea, North 1
TOTAL: ~ 2200
(Source: Ethnologue 2005)
(30 countries)

9. National or Official Languages in Asia
Assamese,
Bengali 2,
Dzongkha,
Eastern Farsi (Dari),
Eastern Punjabi,
English 4 (1),
Filipino,
Gujarati,
Gurung,
Halh Mongolian,
Hindi,
Indonesian,
Japanese,
Kannada,
Kashmiri,
Kazakh,
Kirghiz,
Khmer,
Konkani,
Korean 2,
Lao,
Malay 3,
Malayalam,
Maldivian (Diwehi)
Mandarin Chinese 2,
Marathi,
Meitei,
Myanma,
Nepali 2,
Northern Uzbek,
Oriya,
Portuguese,
Russian 2
Sanskrit,
Sindhi 2,
Sinhala,
Southern Pashto,
Tajiki,
Tamil 2,
Telugu,
Tetun,
Thai,
Turkmen,
Urdu 2,
Vietnamese,
Western Farsi
(46 languages)

10. Learners whose mother tongue is the language of instruction and literacy in education.
Minority language learners who do not speak the language used when they enter school or an education programme

11. MLE for building a strong foundation and a good bridge in multilingual contexts

12. Who are the Kit’s Users?
Policy makers, education practitioners, teachers, community members
Those working in literacy and multilingual education programmes

13. How can the Kit be Used?
Containing three main booklets, the Kit can be used as a self-study advocacy guide.
Each booklet can be used individually or together in a building-block fashion.
It is useful for both formal and non-formal education programmes.
Each booklet contains glossaries of terms.

14. What does it do?
Provides information on the situation of languages in education in Asia-Pacific countries
Examines educational situations for linguistic minorities
Explores how mother tongue-based MLE improves the educational situation for them
Explains the relationship between MLE and development in general
Presents features of a strong mother tongue-based MLE programme, including its cost-effectiveness, case studies and good practices

15. Presents UNESCO’s principles on language and education:
Helps policy makers to understand the educational situation for learners who do not speak the official language
Presents UNESCO’s principles on language and education:
Supporting mother tongue instruction as a means of improving quality education
Promoting multilingual education as a means of promoting social and gender equality
Supporting language as an essential component of inter-cultural education in order to encourage international understanding
Provides further information about MLE and the role of policy makers

16. Presents the educational situation for people who do not speak official school languages
Provides a definition and the purpose of Mother Tongue-based MLE
Describes the process of building a strong educational foundation in a learners’ mother tongue and a good “bridge to the official language”
Shows how to plan and implement MLE programmes
Presents case studies from many countries in the region

17. Helps community members to achieve national/international educational goals without forcing them to sacrifice their mother tongue and culture in the process
Describes learner-centered and community-centered education programmes in which children begin their education in their mother tongue
Provides further information about MLE and the role of community members in the process

18. To obtain the Kit contact:
Ochirkhuyag Gankhuyag
APPEAL Unit
UNESCO Bangkok