1. “Teaching Romani: Curriculum framework for Romani and European language Portfolio” seminar Council of Europe 27-28 November 2008 Presentation by Noro Andriamiseza UNESCO/Headquarters (Paris) Education Sector Division for the Promotion of Basic Education Section for Inclusion and Quality Learning Enhancement

2. Work on Languages in Education Advocacy work, sensitization activities on the importance of mother tongue-based bilingual/multilingual education through the development of policy guidelines, strategy documents, position papers… Main objective: to promote the use of a mother tongue-based bilingual/multilingual education which promotes inclusion in education and enhances quality learning.

3. Current activities on Inclusion in education International Conference on Education, theme « Inclusive Education: the way forward », 25-28 November, Geneva; a side event to discuss UNESCO draft Policy Guidelines on inclusion Council of Europe and UNESCO draft Guidelines on Early Childhood Education-Roma and Traveller Children (see page 25-26 on Linguistic diversity (Romani Language) where maong other points the value of the child’s first language is stated )

4. UNESCO Position Paper “Education in a Multilingual World”, UNESCO, 2003

5. Presentation “Mother Tongue matters: local language as a key to effective learning” Presentation will highlight: Key findings from the publication which includes four case studies: Mali, Papua New Guinea, Peru and the USA

6. Four Case studies Mali: 11 of 13 local languages plus French as languages of instruction “Pédagogie Convergente” (Maintenance bilingual education) Papua New Guinea: over 430 of 820 vernacular languages as languages of instruction “Tok Ples Pri Skul Vernacular Education” Peru: Quechua and Spanish as languages of instruction “Bilingual Intercultural Education” (Maintenance bilingual education) The United States: Spanish and English as languages of instruction “One-way or Two-way Maintenance Bilingual Education” (Thomas and Collier study)

7. Key Findings of the Study Students in the programmes analysed here demonstrate the following principal educational outcomes: Their overall academic achievement is superior to that of students in the monolingual second-language system. Their mathematics achievement is superior as well. Their achievement in the second language is at least as high as that of students in the monolingual second-language system. They acquire additional linguistic competencies in their first language. They participate more actively in the learning process and feel more confident about learning.

8. Conclusion Some documents on inclusion and languages for distribution www.unesco.org Contact details: n.andriamiseza@unesco.org Thank you for your attention.